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Black Tie International: Pete Seeger Event

Pete Seeger conducting
 

Phil Sauers and Pete Seeger
 

Pete Seeger and Sam Rosenthal
 

Pete Seeger and Fiddle Viracola

David Amram , questioning 10 year old, Pete Seeger
 

Pete Seeger signs his autograph for adoring fans
 

Pete Seeger, Sam Rosenthal and Rob Rosenthal

Artist Tina Seeger, Pete Seeger's daughter

David Amram
 

Dina Paisner, Fiddle Viracola and Laura Ledbetter

David Amram

Susie Siegel, Bryant Park Corporation and her husband

 

Word for Word - Peter Seeger Event
 

Crowds of all ages gather together for the concert

Volunteer for Bryant Park

Beneath the Dodge statue

Word for Word
Pete Seeger Event

After the event, a knockout storm flooded the park.  A veteran appeared;
face blackened and battered.  "Iraq two times and Afganistan and they don't help me now.  He removed his hat to scarred disfigured head bumps.
 It was hard!"

 
“The hardest part? I led the men down the hill to kill the enemy; young boys only 15, 16. How do you kill young boys?”  He sobbed crying. Thunder clapped and like a switch-flicked, his tears, pain and guilt erased.
His voice lowered:

 
“But, today Pete Seeger was here,” he continued: “Ohhhh!…I heard his music…the applause… like it fell from the sky.  Oh, Pete Seeger, he knows, he got it right.” Then the Vet sang out: Where have all the flowers gone; giving me a meager serenade that blossomed and stretched,
as he quickly left the park revived.

    Thank you, Pete Seeger for this extraordinary, magical day in

 New York City. You keep filling your cup to the brim.

There is no age. You’re as old as eternity as young

as this moment.

  Pete Seeger: National Medal of Arts (highest award given to artists by the US government) The Kennedy Center Honor when President Bill Clinton called him “an inconvenient artist, who dared to sing things as he saw them.” Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee for influencing artists; Grammy Award; PBS Seeger life special The Power of Song;  Pre-inaugural celebration  for President-elect Barack Obama, at the Lincoln Memorial  singing This Land Is Your Land  plus tunes of his political views. The world listened.  Madison Square Garden concert honored his 90th birthday with over15, 000 admirers. Performers included Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews, Emmylou Harris, Joan Baez, Billy Bragg, Rufus Wainwright, Bela Fleck, Taj Mahal, Roger McGuinn, Steve Earle, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Dar Williams, Tom Morello, Ani DiFranco, and John Mellencamp. Seeger joined in with banjo and led the crowd. In the 21st century, the nation’s most prominent singers recorded albums honoring Seeger, like Bruce Springsteen’sSeeger Sessions.