www.CountryMusicPride.com had a blessed chance to be, I think, one of the last media outlets to have a chat with the late great Mike Seeger:
The Vine of American music grew slowly at first. Traditions were passed down from person to person. Music and musicians were relatively isolated, unique to each region. This slowly shifted as people arrived here from a wider range of countries, settled more of the country.
The advent and growth of recording, radio and the Internet, new frontiers, have helped shape American music as well. Virginian and musician Mike Seeger, brother of popular Folk singer/songwriter Pete Seeger, has recorded traditional American music for decades. His parents were among the first people to do so. He describes the impact of technology on American music:
“The whole way that we deal with music now is very different than prior to 1925, when we started recoding in earnest. The first recording was in 1922. It took off in 1925, shortly after electricity made it possible to record a guitar. Before you couldn’t, it was too quiet, too subtle.
“The whole idea of being able to hear somebody you never heard face to face was an amazing change. It sped up the development of American music. So did increasing urbanization, which was happening at the same time, the result of industrialization, which had also sped things up. It was a changing process.
“At first, radio was very much regional or local. The advent of the playing of recordings gradually changed that. This was during the 30’s and into the 40’s or so. At that time it began to expand, became less locally oriented. And it grew from there.
“Now the Internet is gradually broadening the whole thing, making it much more open to difference. Radio and recording changed the process of music into one that was commercial. In a way, the Internet is doing that a little by giving people who aren’t necessarily pro’s access to tools formerly only available to professionals. This makes the possibility of becoming a professional more or at least a professional as seen by Mr. Google, more available.”
Mike Seeger: The 60s Folk Revival to the Present:
Mike Seeger has helped bring the music of the rural South to popular attention. It is in great part through his influence on his own generation that we hear the voice of the otherwise unknown wanderer my Grandmother describes in a Grateful Dead song, for example. Though he influenced Jerry Garcia and Bob Dylan, he feels that all musicians, those who play for their own enjoyment and with their friends, those of younger generations as well as his own, have equally helped shape the Vine of American music. We perhaps see this reflected in the stories of my Grandmother and Bo Bice. Here is a little of Mike’s story…
Mike Seeger? Sure, most of you probably know who he is, or have heard of him, but why isn’t he super-famous, like Bob Dylan or Jerry Garcia? Well, he reminds me of the Wizard of Oz. Ensconced in the emerald green of the Shenandoah Valley, he has been, for some time, a “’man behind the curtain”; an somewhat unseen, yet fundamental force in American music.
As the Wizard didn’t set out to change Oz, Mike didn’t set out to change music, or to be a celebrity. He just does what comes naturally to him. He was born with music in his blood and so he plays.
He’s not an average musician, he’s not even an average exceptional musician. His unique style and approach were somewhat revolutionary during an important and influential era of American music, the 60s. That’s not the type of thing even the most talented musicians achieve. But he didn’t try to do that. He just did all that by being himself.
He’s a very good example of what my Grandmother said, “to be an accomplished musician of any magnitude, you just have to have it somewhere in your bones. You have the something it takes or don’t.” There are many accomplished musicians. Some of them have it in their bones. There is, however, only one Mike Seeger.
He doesn’t keep his talent on an inaccessible pedestal as many who have reached his level of accomplishment do. He shares it by playing it every day with musicians from his own and younger generations, showing us that it can be part of our daily lives as it is of his. Because of this, he has helped shape American music.
Mike is described in ‘Rolling Stone Magazine’ as “An American artist standing forth…himself branch and root of the entwined true vine…” said of himself in our recent interview:
“These days you tend to think of personalities as being the most important thing. When I started with music I thought of that secondarily. Because I’m playing the music, the music I’m choosing says something about me, in sounds and with the types of songs I choose. But I’ve always felt I’m part of a long process, which is why I call it music from the true vine. Mine is just a part of it.”…
Read the rest at www.CountryMusicPride.com
