Peggy Seeger

My relationship with folk music started as a small child. A family relative who was a major Dylan fan tried to inculcate me into the political correctness and hippy coolness that was the 60's folk scene. I became aware of Pete Seeger through this indoctrination.

My opinion of Pete Seeger mirrors how my mind changed as I grew from young tot to middle aged housewife. When I was young he was my favorite folksinger. He was cute, friendly and grandfatherly. He sang cool songs I could understand like "If I had a Hammer." As I grew old and more cynical, my opinion of Pete changed. As a teenager, I was dismayed to learn he was the curmudgeon who tried to stop Bob Dylan from going electric at a folk festival (I know this version is disputed but it's what teenage Debbie believed.) As a lower middle class, middle-aged parent with a mortgage, food and school expenses his liberal feel good politics seemed out of line with the struggles I had to face.

What does this have to do with Peggy Seeger? Nothing at all really. I chose to read this book based on her brother. I had heard of Peggy because as a child I watched a Pete Seeger concert where he said he was going to sing a song by his sister Peggy. I loved the song "I'm going to be an engineer". It was inspiring to me. I wanted to be the girl in the song. Too bad that I'm horrible at math!

This book is a very detailed, well researched and loving account of Peggy's life. I found it interesting. I also found myself sometimes feeling the same cynical middle aged thoughts that I also harbor for Pete. Pete and Peggy grew up with house help and opportunities. Sometimes, I question if they truly understand the working man's every day struggles. I'm sure this is 100% my failing and has nothing to do with Peggy Seeger. She seems like a wonderful, talented lady. Her mother and father were very interesting people. Charles Seeger, Pete and Peggy appear to have very similar political beliefs and musical interests. Peggy's husband Ewan wrote a song I very much like, "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face". Unfortunately, it appears he was dogmatic and almost tyrannical with some of his associates.

I like Peggy Seeger. I'm interested in listening to more of her recordings.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me a free galley to read in exchange for a fair review

I knew a bit about Peggy Seeger through my partner who is a fan, but I found this a fascinating read, a lot of information in an easy to read format, it didn't make the mistakes of some biographies in that it didn't feel like an info dump, it was written as an affectionbate record of her life and career. The input of Peggy herself also brought it above many of this type of book and there was a good mix of straight biography and anecdote, which made it a more rounded book than many of its type, highly recommended.

Peggy Seeger: A Life of Music, Love and Politics by Jean R. Freedman is the first biography of folk musician Peggy Seeger.

The Seegers are famous as musicians and musicologists. Peggy was half sister to Pete Seeger the famous banjo-strumming political troubadour, and sister of Mike Seeger who specialized in 'old time ' country music of the rural South.

Their father Charles was a folk music scholar and collector, taught at University of Berkeley, and was responsible for creating the first musicology course in the United States. Charles' first wife Constance was a concert violinist and taught at the Institute of Musical Art, which became Julliard. Their children included Pete Seeger.

After their marriage failed Charles met Ruth Crawford, a musician, composer and folk music anthologist. They married and their children included Peggy and Mike. The children grew up surrounded by folk music, pacifism, and a political bent supportive of the working class.

Ruth Crawford Seeger teaching folk songs to children
photo on the back of American Folk Songs for Children
Peggy and Mike learned banjo from their half-brother Pete's book How To Play the 5-String Banjo.

Alan Lomax invited twenty-year-old Peggy to London for a job singing and playing the banjo. She had a sweet, clear voice. An older, established British folk singer, Ewan McColl, saw Peggy perform and their lives were changed unalterably.


Ewan McColl was "equal parts poetry and politics, artistry and activism," a collector and singer of Scottish folk songs with a remarkable baritone voice. The forty-one year old Ewan said his senses were "utterly ravished' when he heard Peggy play. McColl came from the poor, working class. His plays, songs, and radio theater addressed political issues of his day-- workers rights, human rights, fascism, and apartheid.

Ewan and Peggy fell in love, but it was years before Ewan was divorced. Peggy became a British citizen by marrying another singer so she could remain in England. They created the Radio Ballads documentaries, Festival of Fools, The Critics Group, and founded Blackthorne Records.

Ewan wrote Peggy a love song to use in concert, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, in 1957. When Roberta Flack covered the song in 1969 it became a hit. Suddenly McColl and Seeger were financially secure. You can hear Peggy sing the song at: https://secondhandsongs.com/work/31003



Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger in 1965. Photograph: Brian Shuel/Redferns
As the times changed so did Peggy's music. She reflected the Women's movement with her most famous song, Gonna Be An Engineer. The song from 1979 begins with traditional social expectations for a girl:

Momma told me, Can't you be a lady
Your duty is to make me the mother of a pearl
Wait until you're older, dear, and maybe
You'll be glad that you're a girl

The girl does as she is told until she finally gets the job as an engineer. But she faces stereotypes at work:

You've got one fault, you're a woman
You're not worth the equal pay

To sum up, she sings,

I listened to my mother and I joined a typing pool
I listened to my lover and I put him through his school
But if I listen to the boss, I'm just a bloody fool
And an underpaid engineer
I've been a sucker ever since I was a baby
As a daughter, as a wife, as a mother and a dear
But I'll fight them as a woman, not a lady
I'll fight them as an engineer

Ewan's later years were plagued by illness. Shortly before Ewan's death in 1989 Peggy and fellow singer Irene fell in love. and they married in 2006 they had a civil marriage.

I was glad to learn more about Peggy, who I knew through the radio and recordings. She was an amazing woman, pioneering feminist, and accomplished artist.

I have long enjoyed Ewan McColl, especially his Broadside Ballads on which he sings King Lear and His Three Daughters (which you can hear at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vF7n-f72Ig). You can hear Peggy on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/user/PeggySeeger.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Book received from NetGalley.

I have to admit while I know a few of Peggy Seeger's songs, prior to reading this book I knew more about her husband Ewan MacColl and her brother Pete Seeger, and I felt a bit bad about it. I'm a huge fan of folk music and Peggy as a person wasn't someone I really tried to find more information about. So I was thrilled to be given a chance to read her biography through Goodreads. It gives you information on her parents first, so you understand where she got her love of music and her talent as a musician. It also lets you know just what kind of strong willed woman Peggy was and still is. Peggy Seeger accomplished quite a bit for the era she was born and raised in, including attending college and traveling to Europe to study. She is definitely one of those strong-minded women role models needed in the 60's though to today. Even without being a folk music fan the story of how she grew up and her adventures in her young adult years would be an interesting read for many who enjoy books about life from the late depression though the 60's. This is one book I'm getting a copy of for my shelves.