Pete Seeger: Songwriter and Folk Singer Quiz

Answer: Faculty members of the Julliard School in New York.

Pete Seeger's family was quoted in the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper as one "whose chromosomes fairly burst with music."

Answer: The tenor banjo.

In 1935 Pete Seeger was sixteen years old and playing tenor banjo in the school jazz band. He was uninterested in the classical music which his parents taught at Julliard. That summer, he visited a square dance festival in Ashville, North Carolina, and fell in love with the old fashioned five-string banjo, as he said "rippl[ed] out a rhythm to one fascinating song after another."

Answer: Avon and Harvard.

Pete Seeger attended boarding school at Avon Old Farms in Avon, Connecticut. He dabbled in music, journalism and Marxism. He did well enough at Avon to be accepted at Harvard University. Pete Seeger left college in the middle of his sophomore year, and decided to absorb American folk music firsthand by traveling the United States.

Answer: He traded watercolor paintings for food and shelter.

Pete Seeger did quite well with half a Harvard education. As he traveled the United States mastering the five-string banjo and internalizing the folk traditions he had come to love, on the road he met Huddie Ledbetter and Woody Guthrie. These musicians collaborated with him in his early career.

Answer: Assistant to the Archive of American Folk Song.

Pete Seeger, like many artists and musicians during the depression found work with the Federal government working in their chosen fields while creating a lasting legacy for historians.

Answer: The Almanac Singers.

Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger formed the Almanac Singers in 1940. The traveled throughout Mexico and the United States as singer-activists supporting labor movements.

Answer: Yes, he joined the Army.

In 1942, as World War II was raging, Pete Seeger joined the Army and continued to sing and play his beloved banjo. He was discharged in 1945 as a corporal.

Answer: The Weavers.

The Weavers was a folksinging quartet. They recorded "Kisses Sweeter than Wine", "On Top of Old Smokey" and "If I Had a Hammer." Seeger also toured on his own and helped to establish the Newport Folk Festival.

Answer: Yes

Pete Seeger's ties to the Communist Party meant that the major television networks would not air his music. He was called to testify in front of the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1955. He refused to cite the Fifth Amendment when he refused to testify but rather the First Amendment. For that, he was cited for contempt and sentenced to one year in jail. That sentence was later overturned. Even Harvard decided to not allow him to be on campus as he was too controversial.

He was finally invited to play at his alma mater when students protested the prohibition. Pete Seeter said that "I'd sing for the John Birch Society or the American Legion, if they asked." Pete Seeger just loved sharing music with people.

Answer: Kennedy Center Honors Award

After receiving the award when asked by the New York Times if his politics had changed, Pete Seeger said: "I like to say I'm more conservative than Goldwater. He just wanted to turn the clock back to when there was no income tax. I want to turn the clock back to when people lived in small villages and took care of each other. My father, Charles Seeger, got me into the Communist movement. He backed out around '38. I drifted out in the 50s. I apologize [in his recent book] for following the parry line so slavishly, for not seeing that Stalin was a supremely cruel misleader.
I still call myself a communist, because Communism is no more what Russia made of it than Christianity is what the churches make of it. But if by some freak of history Communism had caught up with this country, I would have been one of the first people thrown in jail. As my father used to say: "The truth is a rabbit in a bramble patch. All you can do is circle around and say it's somewhere in there."
I've been trying to write a song for years on the general theme of "don't give up." Now I just quote the bumper sticker: 'There's no hope, but I may be wrong.' I've been saying it so much that people think it's mine, but it's not."

Answer: Steel drums.

Pete Seeger continued to play regardless of his controversial political stands. He recorded "Turn, Turn, Turn" and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" He has been very popular as an entertainer.

Answer: The Hudson River Sloop Restoration.

The project built a genuine Hudson River sloop called the Clearwater. The Clearwater currently participates in "sloop festivals" where residents of the Hudson River get together to address pollution in the river and elsewhere.

Answer: At a "Grapes of Wrath" migrant-worker benefit concert.

Folklorist Alan Lomax said that March 3, 1940 can be celebrated as the beginning of modern folk music when the duo first met and formed the Almanac Singers. The group also included Sis Cunningham, Sonny Terry, Lee Hays, Brownie McGhee and Millard Lampell.

Answer: Toshi Ohta.

They met during Pete Seeger's first leave from the Army. Their friends almost all agreed that Toshi was crucial in helping Seeger manage his finances and organize his career.

Answer: "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"

Pete Seeger's other works include "Turn, Turn, Turn", "Bring them Home", "Flowers of Peace" and "Take it From Dr. King."