Mike Seeger has devoted his life to singing and playing the traditional home
music of the rural American South. With a rich repertoire of ballads,
topical blues, and dance tunes, and his truly astonishing instrumental
versatility on guitar, fiddle, banjo, pan pipes, autoharp, harmonica, and
dulcimer, Mike illuminates the roots of North American folk. His authentic
renditions, spiced with high lonesome tones and sliding pitches, convey the
full depth of feeling, sheer energy, and infinite variety of the music.
Along with his sister Peggy and brother Pete, Mike absorbed a hefty dose of
folk music from his musicologist and composer parents, which he later
supplemented by studying with legendary musicians such as Elizabeth Cotton,
Maybelle Carter, and Dock Boggs. A powerful figure in the traditional folk
revival since the late 1950s when he co-founded the pioneering New Lost City
Ramblers, Mike is a five-time Grammy nominee, and has been a Guggenheim
Fellow and a four-time National Endowment for the Arts Grantee. His most
recent project is 1999's Retrograss (Acoustic Disc), an old-timey
retrofitting of bluegrass, country, r&b, and rock n' roll tunes recorded
with David Grisman and the late John Hartford. |