Pete Seeger - Freight Train

 

In my previous post, I mentioned about a folk group named The Weavers. The Weavers was formed by Pete Seeger, Ronnie Gilbert, Lee Hays and Fred Hellerman.

I learned about Pete Seeger from my search on Internet about the song, “On Top of Old Smokey”. Pete Seeger was born in 1919. He is a ardent folk singer and an accomplished old-fashioned long-neck, five-string banjo picker. Pete Seeger is best known as the author/co-author of "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" and "If I Had a Hammer”.

The note at the back of this album describes that “Pete Seeger learned to play banjo the hard way. In order to learn more about banjo picking, Pete Seeger went hitch-hiking with his banjo over his shoulder, looking for the old-time great instrumentalists. He hitched his way through the Appalachians, staying all nights in barns. When he found a fellow banjo picker or a housewife who sang the old ballads he would swap songs and watch and learn.”   

During the forties, Pete Seeger sang with a group of friends called the Almanac. In late 40s, The Almanac Singers was re-shuffled as The Weavers. When The Weavers was disbanded subsequently, Pete Seeger went solo to continue his folk singing career.

In this album, Pete Seeger demonstrated that he could play the simple “Red River Valley” at ease and also the dazzling “Old Maid Song” skillfully. Most of the songs are accompanied by one or two musical instruments, the main one being a banjo picked by Pete Seeger himself.

This album was released in 1964.

Song List :

Side A – T.B. Blues, Dollar Ain’t a Dollar Any More, Careless Love, Bank of Marble, Cayote, Red River Valley

Side B – Freight Train, Old Maid’s Song, Jimmy Crack Corn, John Henry, “Oh, What a Beautiful City”, This Train