Mark Moss of Sing Out! Magazine just passed on this terrible news about one of America’s last great troubadours:

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From FolkLore Productions: 

“With regret, we must tell you that our dear friend Mike Seeger has chosen to end the treatments against his cancer, and has entered hospice care. He is clear about and at peace with this decision.”

Mary Katherine’s note included a few words from Mike’s wife Alexia, indicating that they are headed home tomorrow (Thursday), and that family is gathering. She added that “musical memories and messages” mean a lot to Mike.

Anyone wishing to send a message should write care of Folklore Productions at: <mkaldin@folkloreproductions.com>
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I know I wasn’t the only one on this list that saw Mike play this spring at the Lutheran Church in Reedsville—for folk enthusiasts I’m just not sure there’s a parallel performer in terms of his depth, range, and experience.

Adam

Geez,  that’s sad news.  I remember his concert in Reedsville well,  and he recorded a WPSU station ID there in the “green room” with me holding the recorder.  To my mind he was not so much an entertainer,  as a transmitter of the art of many kinds of folk music.  That’s not to imply that his concerts were dry or academic,  because there was plenty of wry humor,  but just that he seemed to be sharing pieces of a culture with you,  rather than trying to give you just an evening’s distraction.

It seems his days of giving concerts are past,  but as he moves into this next stage,  I wish him comfort,  especially the supportive presence of family and friends.

I’m finding it very difficult to form words to describe how hard this news hits. Mike Seeger has been a constant in traditional American folk music for me since 1964. The sun came up, the sun went down and Mike Seeger was there playing any instrument that came to hand, attending square dances, and just being what he so readily interpreted. Someone once said that when he performed you could hear the pops and skips on the old records. He was that authentic and had that strong of a belief in the worth of what he was doing. It’s hard to fathom the void that living contribution will leave.
Peace and thanks be with him.

I could never decide if I’d rather be Mike Seeger or Taj Mahal when I grew up.  Living legends and the reigning caretakers of traditional musics.  The New Lost City Ramblers make up a significant percentage of the soundtrack of my life.  I feel like he wrote the book (with music not words) on what Old-Time, Traditional and Folk music mean.  Mike’s like the Supreme Court on musicological debate. Who on this earth would disagree with him?

My thoughts and prayers go out…  Sad times…

A great performance at the Kennedy Center

More info and personal stories at mudcat.org

Wow…hope all goes well.

In our center, when we recommend hospice, usually it inspired such care and comfort, it helps in the healing process…I hope it does in this circumstance, too.

Good memories of Mike and Alice with Tracy and Eloise on the porch concerts in Glen Rock and Tolna…Heard him the other year at the Acoustic Brew, and again at Merlefest, when he and Pete performed…good stuf.

I’m sharing an exerpt of a post to folkdj-l by Wanda Fischer that talks about memories of Mike Seeger,  who passed away Friday, Aug 7, 2009

Mike Seeger…What can I say?  My father, who was a self-described “redneck” living in
Yankee-land in the Boston area because he was unable to find work in southwestern
Virginia after World War II, sang New Lost City Ramblers’ songs (and Carter Family
songs) at the top of his lungs when he mowed the lawn and did other work around the
house in Weymouth, Massachusetts.  “There’ll be beans, bacon and gravy, and they
almost drive me crazy…I even see them in my dreams…When I wake up in the morning,
and another day is dawning, I know I’ll have to face another plate of beans!!!”  That’s
what I heard when other kids were listening to Bill Haley and the Comets.  My father told
me on his death bed in 1987 to remember that “there’s no depression in heaven.”  He
learned that from Mike Seeger and the New Lost City Ramblers.

So to quote from one of my favorite country songs:

Gonna hold who needs holdin’
Mend what needs mendin’
Walk what needs walkin’
Though it means an extra mile
Pray what needs prayin’
Say what needs sayin’
Cause we’re only here for a little while.

Love the music, revel in it while you can, share it with the world—a world that needs to
hear the kind of music we ...share
on the radio.  It has real power, and it holds us together in times when we lose great
friends.

Wanda Fischer
WAMC-FM/Northeast Public Radio
Albany, NY

From the NYT obituaries.  Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/10/arts/music/10seeger.html?_r=2&ref=obituaries
Mike Seeger, a singer and multi-instrumentalist who played an important role in the folk revival of the 1950s and ’60s, died on Friday at his home in Lexington, Va. He was 75.

The cause was multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer, said his wife, Alexia Smith.

Although a quieter voice on the national stage than his politically outspoken, older half-brother, Pete, Mike Seeger was a significant force in spreading the music of preindustrial America during an increasingly consumerist era. In 1958 he helped found the New Lost City Ramblers, whose repertory came from the 1920s and ’30s, and in his career he recorded or produced dozens of albums of what he called the “true vine” of American music, the mix of British and African traditions and topical storytelling that took root in the South.

Mr. Seeger’s dedication had a strong effect on the young Bob Dylan, who wrote fondly of him in his 2004 memoir, “Chronicles: Volume One.” Although only eight years his junior, Mr. Dylan called Mr. Seeger a father figure — for helping the under-age Mr. Dylan with his paperwork — and rhapsodized about him as the embodiment of a folk-star persona.

“Mike was unprecedented,” Mr. Dylan wrote, adding: “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 type all at once.”

But Mr. Seeger made his mark less as a star than as a careful, steady student of his beloved Southern music. He was born in New York to a prominent musical family. His father, Charles Seeger, was a well-known ethnomusicologist, and his mother, Ruth Crawford Seeger, a composer and folk-song collector. Besides Pete, Mr. Seeger’s sister Peggy also became a noted singer.

The intellectual pursuit of folk music was part of Mike Seeger’s life from an early age. At 5 he made a recording of the old British folk ballad “Barbara Allen,” his wife said in an interview on Sunday.

Mr. Seeger played banjo, guitar, autoharp and other instruments, which he learned from old records and in some cases from the musicians who played on them. A dogged researcher, he sought out musicians who had been lost for decades and introduced them to an eager (and young) new audience. One was Dock Boggs, a banjo player from western Virginia whose records were prized by folklorists. Mr. Seeger brought him to the American Folk Festival in Asheville, N.C., in 1963.

Mr. Seeger’s most recent album was “Early Southern Guitar Sounds” (Smithsonian Folkways), in 2007, and he played autoharp on Robert Plant and Alison Krauss’s Grammy Award-winning album “Raising Sand” (Rounder), also released in 2007. In his career Mr. Seeger was nominated for six Grammys.

In addition to his wife, his half-brother Pete, of Beacon, N.Y., and his sister Peggy, of Boston, Mr. Seeger is survived by three sons, Kim, of Tivoli, N.Y., Chris, of Rockville Centre, N.Y., and Jeremy, of Belmont, Mass.; four stepchildren, Cory Foster of Ithaca, N.Y., Jenny Foster of Rockville, Md., Joel Foster of Silver Spring, Md., and Jesse Foster of Washington; another sister, Barbara Perfect of Henderson, Nev.; another half-brother, John Seeger of Bridgewater, Conn.; and 13 grandchildren and step-grandchildren.http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/10/arts/music/10seeger.html?_r=2&ref=obituaries

Here’s a link to an NPR story about the New Lost City Ramblers (featuring Mike Seeger) and a links to the new CD.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111971414&sc=nl&cc=mn-20090822

Did anyone hear the Terri Gross interview about the New Lost City Ramblers and Mike Seeger last night? I’ll try to find the pod cast of it. How was it?

feel like he wrote the book (with music not words) on what Old-Time, Traditional and Folk music mean.  Mike’s like the Supreme Court on musicological debate. Who on this earth would disagree with him?

My thoughts and prayers go out…  Sad times…

Regards

Justine

He was that authentic and had that strong of a belief in the worth of what he was doing. It’s hard to fathom the void that living.

Regards

Brushen

Really a educative and informative post, the post is good in all regards,I am glad to read this post.

Did anyone hear the Terri Gross interview about the New Lost City Ramblers and Mike Seeger? Anyone have a link of it’s podcast then please consider sharing it with us.