PUTNEY — Putney Friends Meeting invites one and all to celebrate the life of Pete Seeger with a sing-along concert with Peter Blood and Annie Patterson, creators of Rise Up Singing, North America's best-selling group-singing songbook, on Friday, April 25, at 7:30 p.m. at Next Stage Arts.
During hundreds of concerts and workshops around the country and abroad, Patterson and Blood have filled rooms with spirited song and rousing harmony.
An accomplished folk and jazz singer in her own right, Patterson will also perform songs from her recent albums Meet Me in the Moonlight and Mountainside.
Seeger, a folk hero and staunch fighter for social justice, died Jan. 27 at 94.
In partial remarks delivered the next day, President Barack Obama said, “Over the years, Pete used his voice - and his hammer - to strike blows for workers' rights and civil rights; world peace and environmental conservation. And he always invited us to sing along.”
The nation's foremost sing-along champion for more than 50 years, Seeger also was a major fan of the Blood-Pattersons and their book.
Since its first publication in 1988, Rise Up Singing has sold more than a million copies. Encompassing an eclectic mix of songs, from Broadway to the Beatles, camp song to carols, and gospel to rounds, the book - often referred to by folk music fans as “The Blue Book” - is a cultural mainstay.
“The publication of Rise Up Singing,” Seeger once said, according to a program announcement, “was a landmark in the history of music in this country - similar to the founding of Folkways Records. I waited a long time for a songbook like this one to come along and catch fire.”
Seeger provided key support when the book was developed, and played a central role in work on its forthcoming sequel. Blood, in turn, was the editor for Seeger's musical autobiography, Where Have All the Flowers Gone: A Musical Autobiography (Sing Out Publications, 1997).
Following in Seeger's footsteps, Patterson and Blood have a deft ability to get an audience - even supposed non-singers dragged along by spouses or those who “only came to listen” - singing their hearts out.
They have led hundreds of concerts in all kinds of settings, from folk clubs and festivals to schools and camps to political rallies and churches.