Description

Probably the last person to feel comfortable with a tribute to himself, no one more than Pete Seeger deserves to be celebrated by his musical contemporaries and descendants and artists from other fields. Where Have All the Flowers Gone presents 39 songs written, adapted or adopted by Seeger in 37 exclusive new versions by major figures in entertainment and social activism.

This unprecedented assemblage of performers spanning generations and international borders includes Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Billy Bragg, Ani DiFranco, Judy Collins, actor Tim Robbins, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Studs Terkel, and politically active musicians from Bosnia, Ireland, Scotland, England, and Canada among its many participants. All acknowledge their debt to Seeger by performing songs or poems he has written or sung for more than half a century to champion the labor and civil rights movement, peace, the environment, and the human spirit. So many artists wanted to be involved in the project that two subsequent all-star Seeger tributes have followed: If I Had a Song: The Songs of Pete Seeger, Vol. 2 (2001) and Grammy finalist Seeds: The Songs of Pete Seeger, Vol. 3 (2003).

Harnessing the power of music to rally support for political and social causes is an American tradition as old as “Yankee Doodle” and “Hail, Columbia.” Pete Seeger has been the modern exemplar of that heritage. “His “Talking Union” energized embattled laborers; he transformed “We Shall Overcome” (performed on Flowers by Bruce Springsteen) from a gospel spiritual to the anthem of the civil rights movement; “Where Have All the Flowers Gone” gently addresses the futility and casualties of war.

Many of Seeger’s best-known songs and more obscure compositions are presented in satisfying new recordings by a rainbow of artists. Widely acclaimed for its scope and execution, Where Have All the Flowers Gone won the American Federation of Independent Music Award as the “Top Independent Release of 1998,” and the duet by Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt on “Kisses Sweeter than Wine” was nominated for a 1999 Grammy as “Best Pop Collaboration.” A decade after its release, Where Have All the Flowers Gone has become a staple of folk radio programs and a cornerstone of modern musical libraries, both personal and archival.

Seeger himself concludes the album with the debut of a new song, “And Still I Am Searching,” a typically humble and thoughtful reflection. The fiftieth anniversary of his seminal folk group, The Weavers, is celebrated with a reissue of their classic “Wimoweh,” and former Weavers member Ronnie Gilbert is represented on “Empty Pocket Blues.”

The new version of “Where Have All the Flowers Gone” on this set made a major impact on an international scale. For three years after its release, the CD’s version by Irish musicians Tommy Sands and Dolores Keane, Bosnian cellist Vedran Smailovic and a chorus of Protestant and Catholic school children accompanied the peace negotiations between Northern Ireland and England. The song was also used an anthem of peace in Northern Ireland when it was played by both sides after the tragic 1998 “Real IRA” bombing in Omagh that killed 29 people and wounded over 100. John Hume, Minister of British Parliament and Nobel Peace Prize winner, described the song as “such an important anthem for our time and our land” and “a vital bridge of hope and healing between two sides.”

Springsteen’s rendition of “We Shall Overcome” was also put to good use in a modern context. Already a cornerstone of labor and civil rights movements in the U.S. and around the world, the song arose again as “an anthem of hope for our troubled times” (to quote NBC’s Nightly News anchorman, Tom Brokaw) in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist airplane hijackings and attacks on New York City and the Pentagon. The song was used as the soundtrack to an NBC Nightly News video montage featuring heroic responses to the destruction of the twin towers of the city’s World Trade Center; first aired on September 13, the video became a theme for recovery from the shocking, horrific events of September 11 and was broadcast frequently, also appearing on NBC’s “Dateline” and CNBC’s “News with Brian Williams.

The events of September 11 were, sadly, not the first tragedy to inspire the use of Springsteen’s “We Shall Overcome.” The recording was also used in the healing process by those who lost family and friends in the April 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado.

In honoring Pete Seeger’s selfless, inclusive outlook and inspiration, more than $100,000 of the profits from the sales of Where Have All the Flowers Gone and its two sequels have been donated to a variety of social justice and environmental organizations by Appleseed.

tracklist

Disc One

1. Tommy Sands – Where Have All the Flowers Gone
2. Jackson Browne & Bonnie Raitt – Kisses Sweeter Than Wine
3. John Gorka – The Water is Wide
4. Richie Havens – Of Time and Rivers Flowing
5. Ani Difranco – My Name is Lisa Kalvelage
6. Bruce Cockburn – Turn, Turn, Turn
7. Tish Hinojosa – Festival of Flowers
8. Sweet Honey In The Rock – Step by Step
9. Studs Terkel – Blessed Be the Nation
10. Billy Bragg & Eliza Carthy – My Father’s Mansions
11. Greg Brown – Sailing Down My Golden River
12. Tony Trischka Band – Goofing Off Suite
13. Kim and Reggie Harris & Magpie – These Three Are On My Mind
14. Cordelia’s Dad – How Can I Keep From Singing?
15. Peter, Paul & Mary – All Mixed Up
16. Ronnie Gilbert w/ Robin Flower & Libby Mclaren – Empty Pocket Blues
17. Tom Paxton – Get Up And Go
18. John Stewart – Old Riley
19. Nanci Griffith & Friends – If I Had a Hammer
20. The Weavers – Wimoweh

Disc Two:

1. Bruce Springsteen – We Shall Overcome
2. Roger McGuinn – Bells of Rhymney
3. Judy Collins – Oh Had I A Golden Thread
4. Guy Davis – False from True
5. Indigo Girls – Letter to Eve
6. Dick Gaughan – Waist Deep in the Big Muddy
7. Tim Robbins – All My Children of the Sun
8. Martin Simpson – Living in the Country
9. Odetta – One Grain of Sand
10. Casey Neill – Old Father Hudson
11. John Trudell – The Torn Flag
12. Si Kahn w/ The Freighthoppers – Doublin’
13. Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer – To Everyone in the World
14. Tommy Makem – Over the Hills
15. Anne Hills – I Come and Stand at Every Door
16. Donovan – My Rainbow Race
17. Holly Near – Quiet Early Morning
18. Studs Terkel – Oh, Sacred World
19. Pete Seeger – And I Am Still Searching