Mike Seeger - RIP

[Mike Rivers]

I expected Paul to beat me to this one, but Mike lost a bout with a very
aggressive cancer Friday night. Fortunately, he went quickly. He was
75.

Mike devoted his life to old time country music - learning, performing,
teaching, sharing, presenting, collecting, and documenting it. He made
this music important, not just to city folks like us, but to the people from
whom he learned it, and the generations after them.

Mike was a friend of mine for over 40 years, a joy to listen to, to play
music with, and to work with in the studio or in the field on occasion. He
left a lot of good music behind, and because of how he presented it and
helped it flourish and grow rather than just be preserved in a living
museum, we won't have lost his music, only his driving force.




--
If you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring and reach
me here:
double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo -- I'm really Mike Rivers
)

[hank alrich]

Mike Rivers > wrote:

> I expected Paul to beat me to this one, but Mike lost a bout with a very
> aggressive cancer Friday night. Fortunately, he went quickly. He was
> 75.
>
> Mike devoted his life to old time country music - learning, performing,
> teaching, sharing, presenting, collecting, and documenting it. He made
> this music important, not just to city folks like us, but to the people from
> whom he learned it, and the generations after them.
>
> Mike was a friend of mine for over 40 years, a joy to listen to, to play
> music with, and to work with in the studio or in the field on occasion. He
> left a lot of good music behind, and because of how he presented it and
> helped it flourish and grow rather than just be preserved in a living
> museum, we won't have lost his music, only his driving force.

He was a great musician, a great musicologist, and a great guy. The New
Lost City Ramblers educated me dearly. RIP, Mr. Seeger.

--
ha
shut up and play your guitar

[Arkansan Raider]

hank alrich wrote:
> Mike Rivers > wrote:
>
>> I expected Paul to beat me to this one, but Mike lost a bout with a very
>> aggressive cancer Friday night. Fortunately, he went quickly. He was
>> 75.
>>
>> Mike devoted his life to old time country music - learning, performing,
>> teaching, sharing, presenting, collecting, and documenting it. He made
>> this music important, not just to city folks like us, but to the people from
>> whom he learned it, and the generations after them.
>>
>> Mike was a friend of mine for over 40 years, a joy to listen to, to play
>> music with, and to work with in the studio or in the field on occasion. He
>> left a lot of good music behind, and because of how he presented it and
>> helped it flourish and grow rather than just be preserved in a living
>> museum, we won't have lost his music, only his driving force.
>
> He was a great musician, a great musicologist, and a great guy. The New
> Lost City Ramblers educated me dearly. RIP, Mr. Seeger.
>

R.I.P.

---Jeff

[William Sommerwerck]

I didn't realize he was Pete Seeger's half brother.

[PStamler]

Hi folks:

Sorry not to have posted earlier. Mike was a guiding light, but also a
friend. A couple of decades ago my mother was hosting an international
medical seminar, and set up a musical evening. She had a string
quartet, an incarnation of the Preservation Hall band, and to
represent traditional American folk music, Mike Seeger. He was, as
always, passionate, articulate, and a gentleman, and those young
doctors from a couple of dozen countries left having heard the best.
And Mike asked after my mother every time I saw him in the next 20
years.

Pertinent to this forum: Mike was also a recording engineer of some
prowess, and worked professionally in the field during his younger
years. His field recordings -- typically done with a couple of Schoeps
mics and a Nagra -- are models of unflashy veracity and clarity. He
recorded Elizabeth Cotten, Dock Boggs, Lesley Riddle, Sara and
Maybelle Carter, Tom Ashley...the list is too long to fit. (Check out
the CD on Smithsonian/Folkways, "Close to Home".)

I did a tribute to Mike on today's broadcast of "No Time to Tarry
Here"; it's archived at www.kdhx.org , and will be for the next 2
weeks. Because I couldn't play two hours of Mike's records (DMCA
restrictions), the second hour was a live recording from 1989. Mike
was at the top of his form. But then, he always was.

He was a giant and a friend, and I'll miss him.

Peace,
Paul