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Everyone in folk music has their Pete Seeger story. Mine is from a gathering of the People’s Music Network, in Philadelphia, some twenty odd years ago. I went in my role as a folk music disk jockey but brought my guitar along. I was in a room where an open mic, of sorts was going to happen in a little while, holding my guitar, although I had no intention of playing or singing in front of the roomful of professionals who would soon gather. Pete came in and he asked me if I was going to play. “Well, no, I really don’t have anything to play and I don’t need to do that today.” I said, or something like that. Pete said “Nonsense, you have a guitar there, you must know how to play something.” He wasn’t going to let me off the hook. Fortunately for me the schedule was already filled. I did participate in a big group song swap later in the weekend.

This clip is a trailer for the PBS special Pete Seeger: The Power of Song. If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend sitting through all the fund raising breaks and watching the whole thing. It brought tears to my eyes. Pete Seeger, after all that he has seen in his long life, still feels that we, as a species, have a bright future ahead of us, if we listen to those early warnings. I’m many years younger, yet I’m not always that optimistic.

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