We spent a wonderful weekend at the Library of Congress symposium on the musical Seeger Family. Needless to say, Pete, Mike and Peggy have been large influences on our music through the years as collectors, interpreters of traditional music and songwriters. We are lucky that they have also become friends and sometimes collaborators on concerts and recording projects. Their parents were musicians and folklorists. Peggy and Mike’s mother, Ruth Crawford Seeger, put together excellent book collections of “American Folk Songs for Children”, “Animal Folk Songs for Children” and “American Folk Songs for Children”. The Seeger family recorded all of these songs on CD’s released by Rounder Records and they represent a wonderful repertoire for families to sing together.

It is truly amazing what this family has created and shared with all of us through the years. If you have trouble finding the recordings, you can mail order them from 1-800-443-4727. Also check out Pete’s children’s recordings on Smithsonian Folkways Records and his live children’s concert at Carnegie Hall. Next January and February, we’ll be teaching a class for families at Strathmore Hall with Betty Scott on this wonderful family repertoire.

The Library of Congress will make material from the symposium and from the donated collections by the Seegers available. Just make a trip down there and check it out at the Archive of Folk Music.