Pete  Seeger  Appreciation  Page

"Some may find them merely diverting melodies. Others may find them incitements to Red revolution. And who will say if either or both is wrong? Not I."

— Pete Seeger in Rolling Stone - April 13, 1972

In addition to being America's best-loved folksinger and an untiring environmentalist, Pete Seeger is a national treasure. He has been at the forefront of the labor movement, the struggle for Civil Rights, the peace and anti-war movements, and the fight for a clean world. He has been a beacon for hope for millions of people all over the world. Once blacklisted from national television for being unafraid to voice his opinions, he was given the nation's highest artistic honors at the Kennedy Center in December 1994. In January 1996 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Although he left Harvard during his second year, in the spring of 1996 he was awarded the Harvard Arts Medal, presented annually to a Harvard graduate who has made an important contribution to the arts. He won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album of 1996 in February 1997 for his Living Music recording "Pete."  At the end of April 1999, he traveled to Cuba to accept the Felix Varela Medal, that nation's highest honor for "his humanistic and artistic work in defense of the environment and against racism."  

This Web site has been put together by Jim Capaldi, a long-time admirer, as a tribute to Pete and his many accomplishments, and as a resource for the type of folk music that Pete Seeger has played for over sixty years.  It is by no means an "official" Web site.  Pete Seeger does not read messages sent here, but he does know about this Web site.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. On Violence

"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate.... Returning violence for violence multiples violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. "

See Pete Seeger on a Postage Stamp

 Toshi Seeger

This Pete Seeger Appreciation Page would be incomplete if it failed to pay tribute to Toshi Seeger, Pete's wife and partner for more than sixty years. Once Pete wrote: "Thanks to my wife Toshi, without whom the world would not turn nor the sun shine." She has remained by his side through it all, and they both have survived with their honesty, their integrity, and their love intact.

Newest Release on Appleseed

Read a great review of this CD.

Pete Seeger's Storytelling Book

                                                                                                                                        Now available in a paperback edition.

Book Description
Beloved folksinger Pete Seeger shares original stories and ways to bring storytelling alive for everyone.

Pete Seeger brings more than fifty years of performing folksongs to the art of storytelling in this unique collection of tales, ideas, and music. He and Paul Jacobs have put together fresh versions of familiar tales; stories based on songs, family histories, and America's past; as well as entirely new tales created just for this book. Each section describes the origins of the stories and there are suggestions for retelling and personalizing the tales to turn them into family favorites for bedtime or family time. And in keeping with the theme that a story never really ends-in fact gets better and better each time it is told-the book concludes with some beginnings, story openers to get you going on the path to creating your own storytelling tradition.

About the Author
Pete Seeger, a Grammy Award winner as well as the recipient of the N.E.A. National Medal of Arts and Kennedy Center Honors, has spent sixty years singing in peace rallies and civil rights marches, at schools and camps, and for unions. His internationally recognized songs include, "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," "If I Had a Hammer," and "Turn, Turn, Turn." He lives in Beacon, New York, with his wife of over fifty years, Toshi Seeger.

Paul DuBois Jacobs is a freelance writer and poet and is currently the Robert Francis Trust Poet-in-Residence. He earned an M.F.A. from the University of Virginia. Paul's grandfather, the great writer Walter Lowenfels, co-wrote a number of songs with Pete Seeger which led to Paul collaborating with Pete on Pete Seeger's Storytelling Book.

Read an interview with Pete Seeger in the July 2002 issue of Acoustic Guitar magazine.

Recently Released . . .

Vital Collections

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THE PETE SEEGER APPRECIATION PAGE WAS ESTABLISHED IN DECEMBER 1995.

"It is better to have struggled and lost, than never to have struggled at all."
- Pete Seeger in the film "Seeing Red"

LAST UPDATED:  March 23, 2005 09:24 PM