Seeds: The Songs of Pete Seeger, Vol. 3 (CD - 2003)

Personnel includes: Pete Seeger (vocals, 6- & 12-string guitars, banjo); Dick Gaughan (vocals, electric guitar, synthesizer); Tao Rodriguez-Seeger (vocals, guitar, percussion); Pat Humphries, John McCutcheon, Janis Ian, Arlo Guthrie,

Carolyn Hester, Martin Simpson (vocals, guitar); Peggy Seeger (vocals, banjo, piano); Billy Bragg, Ani DiFranco, Anne Hills, Ronnie Gilbert, Fred Hellerman, Jennifer Kimball, Holly Near, Michele Greene Natalie Merchant, Tom Paxton, Jessica Radcliffe (vocals); Tony Trischka (banjo); Magpie; Kim & Reggie Harris; Herdsman, Hills & Mangsen; Last Forever.

SEEDS was nominated for the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album.

Personnel: Pete Seeger (vocals, spoken vocals, whistling, guitar, acoustic guitar, 12-string guitar, banjo, recorder); Greg Artzner (vocals, guitar, concertina); Tao Rodriguez-Seeger (vocals, guitar, maracas, percussion); Randolph Harris, Janis Ian, John McCutcheon, Martin Simpson, Pat Humphries, Reggie Harris, Arlo Guthrie, Tom Pacheco, Carolyn Hester (vocals, guitar); Dick Gaughan (vocals, electric guitar, synthesizer); Peggy Seeger (vocals, banjo, piano); Robin Flower, Terry Leonino (vocals, mandolin); Libby McLaren (vocals, piano); Sue Altkin, Livia Vanaver, Kim Harris, Charlene Stout, Mitchell Marcus , Fred Hellerman, Priscilla Herdman, Anne Hills, Holly Near, Robert Euvino, Sonya Cohen, Michael Green, Jennifer Kimball, Jessica Radcliffe, Cindy Mangsen, Natalie Merchant, Ani DiFranco, Ronnie Gilbert, Steve Earle, Anna Crusis Women's Choir, A Band of Angels, Tom Paxton, Billy Bragg, Bill Vanaver (vocals); Marcy Marxer (guitar, mandolin); Ciro Hurtado, Erik Della Penna, Gabriel Gordon, Kevin Kuhn (guitar); Scott Petito (acoustic guitar, mandolin, piano); Fraser MacColl (acoustic guitar); David Bernz (12-string guitar, electric bass, background vocals); Dave Blume, Tony Trischka, Richie Stearns (banjo); T.J. Johnson (mandolin); Harry Scorzo (violin); Abby Newton (cello); Tom DeCrosta (trumpet); Elizabeth Steen (organ); Ralph Gordon (acoustic bass); Pete McDonald, Allison Miller (drums); Bruce Pollock Johnson (maracas); Rick Walker, Frank Duncan, Steve Green , Robert Jospé (percussion); Calum MacColl (programming); Sarah Bonsignore, Beth Reineke (background vocals).

Audio Mixers: Robert Euvino; Scott Petito; Todd Vos.

Liner Note Authors: Jim Musselman; Pete Seeger.

Recording information: Bearsville Studios, Woodstock, NY; benefit concert for Sing Out! magazine, Philadelphia, P; Bias Sound, Springfield, VA; Big Mo Studios, Kensington, MD; Cross Hill Recording, Cobleskill, NY; Current Sounds, New York, NY; Edinburgh, Scotland; Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, CA; Garden Studio, North Garden, VA; London, England; Los Angeles, CA; Nashville, TN; NBC-TV studios, New York, NY; New York, NY; NRS, Catskill, NY; Passport Recording, New York, NY; Pete's Cabin, Beacon, NY; Pleasure Dome Sound Recording Studio, Circleville, NY; Santa Cruz, CA.

Director: Irene Scott.

Photographers: Annette Telgarsky; Jim Musselman; Jody Kolodzey; Beth Reineke.

Arrangers: Dick Connette; Reggie Harris.

In his 60-some years as a public performer, Pete Seeger has left an indelible footprint on popular music. As a member of the Almanac Singers (with Woody Guthrie, Lee Hays, and Millard Lampell) in the 1940s and the Weavers (again with Lee Hays, as well as Fred Hellerman and Ronnie Gilbert) a decade later, Seeger helped midwife the urban folk boom of the 1960s. His comfortable voice and graceful banjo style give his many compositions and folk adaptations an easy and elegant dignity. Seeds is the third in a trilogy of double-disc albums that feature songs either written or arranged by Seeger, with the spotlight this time on previously unreleased material, most of which is on the first disc. As a writer, Seeger has long been a master of protest songs, whimsical songs, and songs of unbridled optimism, and "Trouble at the Bottom," "English Is Cuh-ray-zee," and "Flowers of Peace" (sung to the gorgeous melody of "Wild Mountain Thyme") are welcome additions to his body of work. "Estadio Chile," the horrifying story of the great Chilean singer Victor Jara, is simply an unforgettable song, if painful to hear because of the cruelty it has to bear. The final song on the first disc, "Sailing Down My Golden River," recorded with the assistance of David Gilmour (of Pink Floyd fame) and orchestrated by Michael Kamen, functions as a sort of elegant autumnal statement from Seeger. The songs on the second disc are sung by contemporary folk artists who share an affinity to Seeger's work and include some of his most famous tunes, including Dick Gaughan's slow, stark, synthesizer-colored version of "Bells of Rhymney" and Natalie Merchant's powerful take on "Which Side Are You On," a song written by Florence Reece but popularized by Seeger and sung at many union gatherings. ~ Steve Leggett minimize