Legend Pete Seeger journeys on a Heavenly Sloop 1-27-14

Another folk legend who knew Pete Seeger for many decades was moved to hear of his passing from me this morning. She had been meaning to be in touch with him since Toshi Seeger, Pete's wife, died in July 2013. "He didn't outlive Toshi by much, did he," she said. I recall a few times I saw Pete Seeger perform, with the first being at the Vassar Chapel when I was in college in the 1980s. I realize now that Pete living in Beacon NY by the Hudson River, was just doing a gig up the road for him.

At the time I really did not understand much about the folk music world and importance of protest and activism songs such as "We Shall Overcome"  and "This Land is Your Land". Pete sang "Where have all the flowers gone" (and wrote it I think but let me check). Didn't Katerina Witt skate to that in the Olympics?

My memory has a mind of its own, and I'm not a 'remember the date and year person as some are'. Events, people, songs and shocking or moving events seem to color my life. Pete Seeger gave our daughter a nicely signed book about a boy who got a giant named Abiyoyo to stop bothering his village by playing music and singin his name repeatedly (try it for the bullies in your life, it may work). He signed both an English and Swedish copy, including a banjo drawing with his note in the cover. I loved seeing him sing De Colores with family in Clearwater Festival and know he was a big player in the Hudson River Sloop (a great large sailboat that runs with a mission to revive the waters of the Hudson, if I recall correctly). I was good friends in college with a fellow whose Dad( www.dennisfritz.com) did a drawing of the sloop if memory serves me.

That's how I learned about things, so hope to pass along the message to others, and see if we can get a few more folkies (and activists) fired up to sing their hearts out in whatever medium they feel called to do so, talent or not..'it's about the passion..as the song "You Gotta Sing When the Spirit Says Sing" goes..(see www.folklegacy.com for more songs, and of course, let's see some youtube videos of Pete and pen a song in his honor as the spirit moves US-All).

Sometimes. with a little prompt like that 'something just comes to mind, maybe a line or a feeling that one can capture, a tune and such. I'll try with the acrostic poem of using the first letters to see 'what flows, like a river..." Person of almost a century, Exploring  the waters of freedom and safety, Teaming up with singers, activists, and simple folk, Expressing the human spirit's struggle and success in song and as fine family man, friend and fearless leader   Sing, Explore, Enjoy, Go, Entertain, Revel in life, thanks Pete Seeger, You're Legacy Lives On around the World and now with a Heavenly Band!