Singalong Concert May 10 Will Mark Pete Seeger’s Centennial Year
Performers/Leaders Will Be Charlie King, Sally Rogers, Annie Patterson, Peter Blood
CONCORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE---A singalong concert at the Concord Unitarian Universalist Church on Friday evening, May 10, will celebrate Pete Seeger’s 100th birthday with performers Charlie King, Sally Rogers, Annie Patterson, and Peter Blood. Proceeds will benefit the New Hampshire office of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization dedicated to social justice and peace.
“Pete Seeger was the master of group singing,” says Peter Blood, who with Annie Patterson is the creator of the Rise Up Singing and Rise Again songbooks “Audiences all over the world came to watch him perform and sing along with him, often in languages they had never even heard before. He used his singing as a way of reaching into the hearts of the people in his audiences and getting them to look at themselves, at people different from them, and at the world in fresh ways. Many lives were changed just by listening to Pete Seeger’s music or singing along with him in settings large and small.”
Seeger, who would have turned 100 on May 3, died in 2014.
Tickets can be ordered from the Rise Up and Sing website. A donation of $20 is requested for tickets, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
The concert begins at 7 PM at the Unitarian Universalist Church, located at 274 Pleasant Street, Concord NH 03301.
The song leaders at the May 10 event are all accomplished performers on their own.
Charlie King is a musical storyteller and political satirist whom Pete Seeger called “one of the finest singers and songwriters of our time.” His songs have been recorded and sung by Pete Seeger, Peggy Seeger, Holly Near, Ronnie Gilbert, John McCutcheon, Arlo Guthrie, and others. With Pete Seeger and others, Charlie King is one of the founders of the People’s Music Network, which brings together songwriters and singers whose music inspires peace and social justice activism.
Sally Rogers is not only one of the founders and leaders of the Children’s Music Network, she is a much-loved singer, songwriter, and music educator who accompanies herself on guitar, banjo and mountain dulcimer. Her latest CD, “We Are Welcomed,” with Claudia Schmidt, celebrates the empowerment of women.
Annie Patterson and Peter Blood are the co-creators of the best-selling songbook, Rise Up Singing, which Studs Terkel called a “play-work-fight-freedom hymnal.” Together they have led singalong concerts across North America and abroad aimed at “building hope and change through song.” Patterson is well-loved for her stunning vocals, old-timey banjo playing and her harmonies with the band Girls From Mars. Blood worked closely with Pete Seeger for over a year as the editor of his autobiography, Where Have All the Flowers Gone: A Singalong Memoir.
The audience at the May 10 will be singing out of Patterson and Blood’s newest songbook, If I Had a Hammer, which contains 50 of the best songs that Seeger led at his own concerts, including such classics as “Turn, Turn, Turn,” “Where Have All the Flowers Gone,” and the title song, “If I Had a Hammer.” Copies of the new songbook will be available for sale, as will CDs from the other performers.
The New Hampshire Program of the American Friends Service Committee works with individuals and organizations that care about building peace and social justice through nonviolent methods. Its current priorities include immigrant and refugee rights and well-being, economic justice, and supporting civic engagement. Arnie Alpert and Maggie Fogarty are the Co-Directors.
The May 10 concert is one of 11 being held from April 26 to May 19 across 7 northeastern states. More information is available at Rise Up and Sing.