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Darling Corey and Goofing-Off Suite are relatively early Pete Seeger recordings, admired by enthusiasts for decades but for a long time difficult to find. Originally issued separately, the recordings represent two important facets of Pete Seeger’s career as a musician- his debt to traditional performers and his development of new styles. In Darling Corey Pete demonstrates the influence of traditional southern mountain musicians on his style, and pays homage to the "roots" of the music he has continued to play ever since he worked for Alan Lomax in 1939, listening to recordings at the Library of Congress. These are the "roots" of the musical traditions that he has so influenced. In Goofing-Off Suite Pete shows how far he can take the traditional five-string banjo and other instruments into new domains using instrumental techniques that have since become part of the standard repertory. Goofing-Off Suite is an example of the growing tip (or "shoots") of Pete Seeger’s music. He has always been an innovator and composer as well as an interpreter of older traditions. By bringing in two recordings together in a single release, we demonstrate how much the innovator has been influenced by his teachers, and how much he has creatively worked with the instruments and traditions to expand them into new musical styles.
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 A Folk Historian At Work |
| Review Date: December 9, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Alfred Johnson, boston, ma |
This review is being used to describe several of Pete Seeger's recordings. Although I have listened to most of his songs and recordings these are the CDs that best represent his life's work.
My musical tastes were formed, as were those of many of the Generation of 1968, by `Rock and Roll' music exemplified by the Rolling Stones and Beatles and by the blues revival, both Delta and Chicago style. However, those forms as much as they gave pleasure were only marginally political at best. In short, these were entertainers performing material that spoke to us. In the most general sense that is all one should expect of a performer. Thus, for the most part that music need not be reviewed here. Those then who thought that a new musical sensibility laid the foundations for a cultural or political revolution have long ago been proven wrong.
That said, in the early 1960's there nevertheless was another form of musical sensibility that was directly tied to radical political expression- the folk revival. This entailed a search for roots and relevancy in musical expression. While not all forms of folk music lent themselves to radical politics it is hard to see the 1960's cultural rebellion without giving a nod to such figures as Dave Van Ronk, the early Bob Dylan, Utah Phillips, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie and others. Whatever entertainment value these performers provided they also spoke to and prodded our political development. They did have a message and an agenda and we responded as such. That these musicians' respective agendas proved inadequate and/or short-lived does not negate their influence on the times.
As I have noted in my reviews of Dave Van Ronk's work, when I first heard folk music in my youth I felt unsure about whether I liked it or not. As least against my strong feelings about the Rolling Stones and my favorite blues artists such as Howlin' Wolf and Elmore James. Then on some late night radio folk show here in Boston I heard Dave Van Ronk singing "Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies" and that was it. From that time to the present folk music has been a staple of my musical tastes. From there I expanded my play list of folk artists with a political message, including, obviously, Pete Seeger.
Although I had probably heard Seeger's "Had I a Golden Thread" at some earlier point I actually learned about his music second-hand from a recording of "Songs of the Spanish Civil War" which included "Viva la Quince Brigada" a tribute to the American Abraham Lincoln Battalion of the International Brigades. Since I was intensely interested in that fight in Spain and in that "premature anti-fascist" organization I was hooked. While, like Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger's influence has had its ebbs and flows since that time each succeeding generation of folk singers still seems to be drawn to his simple, honest tunes about the previous political struggles and the ordinary people who made this country, for good or evil, what it is today.
This compilation is made of two early Seeger albums that reflect his early and on-going attempts to recapture the American folk heritage. He uses his signature banjo to great effect here. You will also find that since the release of these albums in the 1950's many of these songs are now familiar and have frequently been covered by a whole range of later artists. Thank Pete for that. Think- "John Riley", "Darling Corey", "East Virginia Blues", "Empty Pocket Blues' and "Sally Ann" on this point and you will see what I mean.
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Truly magical Pete Seeger
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| Review Date: October 30, 2002 |
| Reviewer: , |
| I've been a fan of this artist for nearly half a century, and of all his recordings I love Darling Corey best. No recording, however excellent, not even recordings made at live concerts, fully recreates the electric connection with the listener that made Pete's concerts so exciting. Somehow this one comes close to bringing him there to the imagination. Maybe it's the youthful vibrancy in both voice and playing. It's wonderful to have this classic now paired on CD with the eclectic mix of the Goofing Off Suite. |
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