A Taste Of Honey February 6 2014

A life of almost 95 years saw Pete Seeger(pic left solo and pic.right with Bruce Springsteen) sing to children,presidents and unions.In fact in relation to the latter, in the 1950’s he was deemed un-American by the US government decision makers and his music and TV show were banned and his career was crippled.He had No 1 records with “Goodnight Irene”with his group The Weavers,“Turn,Turn,Turn”(the Byrds version), the words for which he adapted from the book of Ecclesiastes, “If I Had a Hammer” which was recorded by Sam Cooke,Trini Lopez and others.He won 3 Grammys from many more nominations and celebrated his 90th birthday with amongst others Dave Mathews,Bruce Springsteen,Arlo Guthrie,Anni DeFranco,John Mellencamp at a Madison Square Garden concert that benefitted The Hudson River Sloop Clearwater environmental project.He used his talents as a musician,an archivist and folk song curator,an environmentalist and a humanitarian demanding justice for the underprivileged.He adapted a gospel song to sing it for union workers and wound up with it being an anthem for the civil rights movement-“We Shall Overcome”He was a director of the Newport Folk Festival in 1959 and championed the modern era folk singers,namely Bob Dylan,Joan Baez and Peter,Paul and Mary.He is survived by his son Daniel ,daughters Mika,Tinya & Peggy and six granchildren including Tao Rodriguez-Seeger who performed with him at the Obama inaugural concert.RIP Pete Seeger -thankyou for your amazing contributions to our world during your lifetime and for your legacy in music and of your actions .

For the playlist of todays programme please click on programmes and follow the easy prompts to the ‘A Taste Of Honey ‘ section.