eMusic Review 0
When he took the stage on the night of this nearly two-hour performance, Pete Seeger was less than halfway through a life that has now stretched beyond 90 years. He’d been indicted three years prior for contempt of Congress after refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee; his response, in part, was to start booking concerts at schools across America, including this one at a small college in Brunswick, Maine. It was broadcast by local radio station WBOR, and more than half a century later, it stands as a rare complete-concert recording of the era, documenting much of what we now take for granted as the Seeger legacy. Performances include his landmark instrumental “Living in the Country,” immortalized later in versions by such luminaries as Leo Kottke and George Winston, and his adaptation of the Idris Davies poem “The Bells of Rhymney,” which turned up on the Byrds’ debut album five years later. Despite the historical backdrop, Seeger’s repertoire isn’t overly political, though he digs in here and there on tunes such as Ernie Mars’s anti-war broadside “What a Friend We Have in Congress.” Another Mars tune, “Quiz Show,” elicits one of the biggest laughs from the audience:… read more »
