Folk hero and activist Peggy Seeger has carved out quite an enduring niche for herself throughout the decades.
Seventy years of performing and songwriting has resulted in a bulging repertoire that includes beloved songs I’m Gonna Be an Engineer and The Ballad of Springhill, countless collaborations, and over 20 albums – the latest of which, Teleology, was released earlier this month, and is reportedly her final; a fitting tribute to her legacy as one of North America's finest folksingers.
Speaking of fine folksingers, Seeger also once crossed paths with a young Bob Dylan – which makes sense considering her brother, Pete Seeger's key role in Dylan's early career.
“I met Bob Dylan when he was Robert Zimmerman, a student,” she tells The Guardian. “I remember him very clearly because the event organizer said: ‘You know that little fellow who followed you around with his briefcase? He’s Bob Dylan.’
“At that point, I said, ‘Who’s Bob Dylan?’, but more power to him. He’s like me in that he hasn’t got a ‘good’ voice but he’s got a character voice and he created the character Bob Dylan out of Robert Zimmerman. It makes me wonder if I created myself, because I’m much more of an entertainer now than I was when I was just a singer of folk songs. I do little jokes and monologues and all kinds of things I never would’ve done as the Peggy Seeger of 1962.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Seeger also reflects on her guitar playing, saying, “I never mastered the guitar – my sons are better players than I am – but folk music didn’t ask very much of me. I took pride in learning songs. I was a guitar accompanist rather than a solos person.”
Indeed, Seeger’s compelling guitar accompaniments have become a trademark of her career, with her knack for the Carter Family strumming, Spanish style, drone-bass or “automatic thumb” fingerpicking (among many other techniques) being the subject of a two-hour Peggy Seeger Teaches Guitar Accompaniment DVD release.
“I played with my father [renowned folklorist and musicologist Charles Seeger] when I was seven or eight and the main thing I would say is learn something really well before you perform it for anybody else. Don’t necessarily feel you have to be that good, just play and enjoy the sound of this wonderful instrument, and once you learn the normal tuning try open tuning.”
Speaking of Bob Dylan, the highly-lauded biopic A Complete Unknown saw Gibson partner with the movie's production team to provide the actors – including Timothée Chalamet, who starred as Dylan – with a series of top-of-the-line Gibsons that deliver period-correct and distinctly Dylan-esque tones.
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