Mike Seeger, an American folk musician and archivist of traditional music, died of cancer Friday night at his home in Lexington,Virginia at the age of 75.
The younger half-brother to Pete Seeger, Mike was an accomplished performer on several instruments including the guitar, banjo, autoharp, fiddle, dulcimer and mandolin. Seeger was both a solo artist and a founding member of the New Lost City Ramblers with John Cohen and Tom Paley in 1958.
Seeger’s love of “old-timey” music inspired his audience and other artists to rediscover the roots of American music. Among the musicians he influenced was Bob Dylan who wrote about Seeger in his book, Chronicles:
- "He was extraordinary, gave me an eerie feeling. Mike was unprecedented. He was like a duke, the knight errant. As for being a folk musician he was the supreme archetype. He could push a stake through Dracula's black heart. He was the romantic, egalitarian and revolutionary all at once -- had chivalry in his blood."
- "He played on all the various planes, the full index of the old-time styles, played in all the genres and had the idiots mastered -- Delta blues, ragtime, minstrel songs, buck-and-wing, dance reels, play party, hymns and gospel -- being there and seeing him up close, something hit me. It's not just as if he just played everything well, he played these songs as good as it was possible to play them."
- "I listened to The New Lost City Ramblers. Everything about them appealed to me — their style, their singing, their sound. I liked the way they looked, the way they dressed and especially I liked their name. Their songs ran the gamut in styles, everything from from mountain ballads to fiddle tunes and railroad blues. All their songs vibrated with some dizzy, portentous truth. I’d stay with The Ramblers for days. At the time, I didn’t know that they were replicating everything they did off old 78 records, but what would it have mattered anyway? It wouldn’t have mattered at all. For me, they had originality in spades, were men of mystery on all counts. I couldn’t listen to them enough."
During his career, Seeger earned six Grammy nominations. In 2007, he played autoharp on the Grammy Award winning album Raising Sand by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss.
Always Been A Rambler, a film by Yasha Aginsky documenting the career of The New Lost City Ramblers, was released on DVD earlier this year.
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Dave Alvin and the Guilty Women coming to the Mucky Duck in September
Imelda May announces first ever U.S. tour
Chrissie Hynde, David Gilmour and Bob Geldof come together for common cause
Comments
Here is hoping Mike you are playing where ever you are.
Enjoyed that night in Stauton,Va. party, you were a hell of of dancer.
Still Pickin'
Bill Hudson
For Alexia and all of us who know and love Mike . . . it is we, the living who shed the tears and hold the pain of not knowing how to go forward easily without one so very dear. Just as a with poetry, old time music, song and dance were gifts Mike shared seamlessly with all. Now, those of us whose lives touched his, we have much to mutter worth listening to while we move toward the last delirium...Mike Seeger enriched us all, great and small.
Mike Seeger was an inspiring example to several generations of musicians. His incredibly nuanced grasp of a tremendous range of traditional instrumental and vocal styles was simply astonishing. His famous older half-brother Pete called Mike "the best musician in the family," and imo that's 100 percent accurate.
I first got hooked on Mike's work with the New Lost City Ramblers in 1962 and finally got to meet him at the Chicago Folk Festival a few years later, the first of several fortunate encounters with this gentlemanly, generous, and wonderfully enthusiastic spirit. He was a guide and mentor to more young musicians than he could have possibly known, and a tireless advocate for the music he loved and the older players from whom he'd learned. It was a privilege to have learned from him and his loss is one I'll always feel -- roll on, buddy....
Mike Seeger was not Pete's stepbrother. He was a bonafide half brother. Both were sons of Charles Seeger, but had different mothers. Mike's mother was the distinguished composer and folklorist, Ruth Crawford Seeger.
Thank you Bill, for the correction and explanation.
Thanks to Linda and David Krantz for providing a venue so that we could hear Mike in your home. That was a wonderful treat.
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