Pete Seeger News

Looking back on a memorable year in her teenage life, Robin Westle delights audiences and inspires in them some happy memories of their own youth.

For 17 years, 'WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour' has provided a worldwide platform for countless musicians, many of them Americana, bluegrass and country.

This is the 12th year Sullivan has held a celebration of artists born in a 20th century year, 100 years after their birth; many of the songs were originally composed by Ervin Drake, though the show also hosted tributes to Liberace, Nat King Cole, and Tennessee Ernie Ford.

Direct from the west coast of Canada, on its first US tour, comes a rollicking, tumultuous, triumphant sing-along musical memoir in 2 acts, celebrating the legacy of legendary folksinger, social activist, and environmentalist, Pete Seeger.

 Everybody Under the Sun: Voices of Solstice – Volume I: The Singers will be released on December 6, 2019. This two-disc anthology presents live recordings of 22 guest singers from 13 cultures of the world who have been featured in Paul Winter's solstice celebrations in the world's largest cathedral, New York's St. John the Divine, over the past 38 years.

Ageless Wonders: A Grown up kids Guide to Realizing we are NEW: is a triumphant one woman performance designed to enlighten people on aging in modern times under the direction of Best National Solo Artist Jessica Lynn Johnson. This musical/dramedy promises to shed light on the benefits of entering the club of senior wonderhood. This 70 minute play promises to evoke some tears, guarantee smiles and even laughter. The show has a catchy original score written by Roland Mousaa, Grammy Winner & Mindy Fradkin, both of whom had the privilege of working and befriending the late great Pete Seeger, folk icon/activist.

Battery Dance Festival's Tuesday and Wednesday night performances proved that choreography is only as wonderful as its music is rich. Led by Buglisi Dance Theatre, Ballet Nepantla, Vanaver Caravan, Ballet Boy Productions, and Battery Dance Company, this fact was never far from the concertgoers' minds as they swooned blissfully to fantastic dancing coupled with brilliant music.

Tickets are still available for Peter Yarrow & Paul Noel Stookey, of Peter, Paul & Mary fame on Friday, October 11th at 8:00 p.m. Ticket prices range from $68-$88 and can be purchased at SOPACnow.org.

During Lisa Viggiano's critically-praised 2018 Bruce SpringsteenTribute Shows (which helped earn her a 2019 Bistro Award for a?oeOutstanding Vocalista??), she included a section of songs by iconic musicians and singers discovered over five decades by talent scout/record producer John Henry Hammond, who also championed Springsteen and recorded a?oeThe Boss'sa?? first demo. Now, like a spinoff from a hit TV sitcom, Viggiano has created an entire cabaret show featuring songs and performers produced by Hammond during his long career at Columbia Records. In FROM LADY DAY TO THE BOSS: 50 YEARS OF TALENT DISCOVERED BY LEGENDARY COLUMBIA RECORD PRODUCER JOHN HENRY HAMMOND, Viggiano will deliver her unique renditions of classic tunes recorded by Bessie Smith, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, Harry James, Count Basie, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Leonard Cohen, George Benson, and Springsteen.

America's adored World-Folk music group, Rising Appalachia, have already had a career-defining year and it's the start of September. Sisters Leah Song and Chloe Smith have led the band to new heights in 2019; releasing their much-anticipated LP Leylines which was met with high praise from fans and critics alike. Today, the band released the official video for the song “Cuckoo” via Billboard Magazine, who called the song a “perception changer” that “channels their southern roots.” Next week, the band will showcase at AMERICANAFEST in Nashville, TN before kicking off a two month Leylines release tour in Telluride, CO on Sept. 2o. 

United Solo, the world's largest solo theatre festival, is bringing together over 130 shows from all over the world for its tenth anniversary. These shows will offer audiences intimate theatre experiences highlighting the talent, unique perspectives, and storytelling prowess of participating artists. Many promising shows have captured the public's imagination, have sold out their first performances at the Festival, and may now be offered additional performances. Fourteen bestselling shows are now sold out at United Solo. Three of these SOLD-OUT shows are part of THE BEST OF category, which recognizes the greatest artistic achievements of United Solo's first decade.

For the fourth straight week, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass has announced ten more artists for their 2019 festival which takes place in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park on October 4-6. As with past lineup reveals, fans were treated to a sneak-peek audio clip of the soon-to-be-announced artists on HSB's social media accounts earlier this week. Upon hearing what HSB calls the weekly “artist medley,” fans hypothesized in the comment section about who might be added to the lineup.

FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, again presents a cast of Harvard and Yale grads in The Fifth Annual Harvard-Yale Cantata. Join us for a unique evening at Feinstein's/54 Below, with Team Harvard looking to avenge another lucky narrow victory by Team Yale. Will it be five wins in a row for Yale? Harvard has a new team captain and a new music director, and they promise a strong showing. Most of the contests in this series have been very close, and the teams are always well-matched and brimming with talent.

New York reggae-pop band, The Big Takeover, have premiered the new video for their latest single, “Shy,” via Audiofemme. Fronted by the charismatic Jamaican-born singer/songwriter Nee Nee Rushie, The Big Takeover blend Jamaican pop traditions with the spirit of Motown and uptown sophistication of the 21st-century retro soul and R&B revival scene. “Shy” is the first single from the band's upcoming fifth album, Spilling Water, and was produced by David Baron (Meghan Trainor, The Lumineers, and Jade Bird). The new video finds the New York band starring as guests on a fictional 70s late-night show to perform their upbeat single. “The song has a retro pop vibe that pairs perfectly with the retro late-night show theme,” Rushie told Audiofemme, adding, “We knew we wanted to do a performance video, but the idea for a retro late-night show came from the director [Dino Davaros].”

Four-time Grammy nominee and folk/rock innovator Chris Hillman chronicles his storied music career alongside long-time musical partner Herb Pedersen at Pepperdine University's Smothers Theatre in Malibu on Saturday, September 21 at 8 p.m. at the Lisa Smith Wengler Center for the Arts.

It was all too quickly over, but the audience would have stayed all night.

Ute Lemper: Rendezvous with Marlene sees a living legend portraying a now lost legend - up close and personal and a privilege to see.

This All-Star Tribute Concert 1970 celebrates the life and work of the legendary folk singer and songwriter Woody Guthrie, whose songs have become part of the bedrock of American life. Three years after Guthrie died of Huntington's disease in 1967, the California chapter of the Committee to Combat Huntington's Disease, now known as the Hereditary Disease Foundation, helped stage this concert at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles to raise funds for Huntington's research.

Presented by New Jersey/New York fixture Joe D'Urso and Halmar International, the 6th annual Rockland-Bergen Music Festival kicks off on Wednesday, June 19 at Levity Live in West Nyack, NY with the Rockland County Music Awards. For the first time in its history the festival will span five days and four music venues, featuring headlining sets from Steve Earle & The Dukes and American songwriting legend John Prine at German Masonic Park in Tappan, NY on Saturday, June 22 and Sunday, June 23 respectively. This will serve as Prine's only metro-area performance of the summer.

Light In The Attic's Japan Archival Series continues withSachiko Kanenobu's Misora, a timeless classic of intricate finger-picking, gently soaring melodies and rustic Laurel Canyon mysticism, produced by Haruomi Hosono and originally released in 1972 on URC (Underground Record Club), one of Japan's first independent record labels. One of the most beloved works to come out of Japan's 1960s-70s folk and rock scene, Light In The Attic's forthcoming reissue marks the first time that Misora will be available physically in the United States.