eMusic Review
Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie stand alongside each other, incontrovertibly, as the premier American folk musicians of the 20th century, and the differences between the two men's philosophies — aesthetic, political, personal — can be summed up in one word: Dylan. Woody was Bob's idol, and he bestowed upon posterity not just the hoarse yawp that (in the paradoxical way of all pop) signals authenticity perhaps most fiercely when it's a transparent affectation. He also bequeathed to rock and roll the notion of the folk singer as weathered lonesome prophet, a protean persona forever re-fabricating his past.
Pete, by contrast, is often recalled as a benign peacenik, sainted for the generalized hippie-ish sentiments of "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" or "Turn Turn Turn" or "If I Had a Hammer." Or maybe we grudgingly credit him for helping create the very idea of commercial folk music in the '50s with the Weavers, inspiring the collegiate acoustic strain that Dylan would sneer down — as well as the undying tradition of purist detractors crying "sell-out" at their successful peers.
The Smithsonian Folkways re-release of American Favorite Ballads, timed to honor Pete's 90th birthday on May 3, avoids both of these familiar periods of… read more »
