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PETE SEEGER . . . He’s added a new instrument.

RADIO-TV

Pete Seeger repeats success

with second city appearance -

gy 500 people attended a
concert by the well-known
American folk singer, Pete
Seeger, at Pender Auditorium
here last Friday night. The
concert, Seeger’s second in this
city, wound up the singer’s
tour of Interior mining cen-
tres.

The concert was character-
ized by Seeger’s usual infec-
tious enthusiasm and_hard-
driving banjo work. He has
also added some new folk in-
struments, the most startling
of which was a steel drum
from Trinidad fashioned from
one end of an oil barrel,

Different sized sections are
heated and hammered out into
bulges which, when beaten,
give. out tones of different
pitches. Thus it is possible to
play melodies as well as rhy-
thmic patterns. In Trinidad,
whole orchestras are made up
of steel drums of different
sizes, With varying pitches and

Popular outdoors program
back on Channel 2 next week

big oo of British Colum-
the Bs 6,255 square miles,
"illion ation well over one
of that More than one half
Viewing Population is in the
than ‘ange of CBUT. More
thee Quarter of the prov-
Ih g Population participates
Such < Way in outdoor sports

Q :
Spine fishing, hunting or

heg
Why th. facts together explain
With 4 CBUT show Gatanors
PoDUlay ~£nton has been so
's ree te Channel 2 view-
Ying + the last fwo years.
aq Q hat time Denton had
Shima Program on predatory
Make = he has shown how to
bug peck decoys, how - to
bag a pptefab boat. He has
the bowogtam on the use of
‘howe th and arrow, which
he olia ow arrow penetrating
in fel frying pan and
MicaoyeVen lessons on the
>Next ae fly casting.
ie Outarnc2Y night at 7:30
Mn rey Cor with Hal Den-
tothe ws to Channel 2 for
ql iy. 280. First program
Ntigh <2 quick look ‘over
olumbia, the country
dlife that inhabits
eae goat and sheep
en wtns, the moose in
00, the : Valleys of the Cari-
ams. ‘sh in its lakes and
al DH
peragin ton Was for 10 year's
‘st Spo, Editor of the North-
~ortsman Magazine. At
CBC radio he

Wy, or ’ .

lalf years. He has

Dry, In
S Yinca ment about every

anada and hun-

ted in most — and not the teast
of his successes was a 74-
pound salmon at Rivers Inlet,
BG
* eV as

As the season for flinging
oneself into the nearest body
of water. and swimming slow-
ly into the setting sun draws
quietly to its close, Vancouver
Theatre has the last word on
marathon swimmers. It’s a
play called The Great Lake
Erie Float by Montreal writer
Maxwell Cohen, on CBC Fri-
day, October 5 at 8:30 p.m.

One of the heroes of the
play is a struggling young
artist who can’t get recognition
by working with the conven-
tional easel so decides to
sketch a few masterpieces
while floating on his back
across Lake Erie.

x x x

“We were passing by the
door of the Royal Victoria Hall
— it was just half-price time
— and the beggery and ras-
cality of London were pour-
ing in to their low amusement
from the neighboring @éin-
palaces and thieves’ cellars.
A herd of ragged boys, vomit-
ing forth slang, filth and
blasphemy, pushed past us,
compelling us to take good care
of our pockets.” :

Such was the notorious
Royal Victoria (as the Old Vic
was then called) in the middle
of the 19th century, as it ap-
peared to the novelist: Charles
Kingsley, ;

Beenka on May 11, 1818, as
the Royal Coburg, it switened
from blood-and-thunder melo-
dramas to music-hall turns

and eventually to Shakespear-
ean drama.

The Old Vic Story, by
Charles Parr, will be the
feature of CBC Wednesday,
October 3, at 8 p.m.

The period 7:40 to 8 p.m.
before the play will be devoted
to an interview by Nathan
Cohen with a veteran of many
Old Vic productions, Sir John
Gielgud.

timbres. They are, as Seeger
observed, probably the world’s
loudest orchestras.

Seeger sang songs from dif-

* ferent parts of the world, in-

cluding the U.S., Canada,
Africa, Indonesia, and _ the
British Isles. He soon stirred
up the audience’s enthusiasm,
and gave them lots of oppor-
tunity to join in the singing,
since that was obviously what
they. wanted.

On Saturday, Seeger con-
ducted a workshop on folk
music and performance for
some 40 folk enthusiasts. It
took the form of an informal
lecture, with musical iliustra-
tions, by Seeger; discussion
from the floor; and general
singing.

Although individuals and a2
local singing group contributed
songs from the floor, enjcy-
ably and effectively, an in-
excusable omission was the
failure to include any Canadian
folk materjal. However, the
workshop did engender a
general spirit of enthusiasm
for folk art.

* x *

Pete Seeger, born in New
York City in 1919, comes from
a distinguished musical family.

His stepmother, Ruth See-
ger, is well known for her
books of folk songs tor chil-
dren, and was actively teach-
ing music to children until
her death in 1953.

Pete’s father, Charles See-
ger, is a well-known Ameri-
can musicologist, formerly
head of the music department
of the University of California.
Since his retirement from
active teaching, he has been
associated with the music
section of the Pan-American
Union.

It is from his father that
Pete derived his earliest lov=

*

for folk music. Beginning
with a ukelele when he was
eight, he later settled on the
long -necked “mountain”
banjo as the most suitable for
his personality.

He travelled around the
eastern U.S. for a while, ab-
sorbing the feeling of regional
folk expressions, and began
his professional career in 1939.

Two years later, he helped
to form the Almanac Singers,
a group devoted to perform-
ance of labor songs. It broke
up in a couple of years when
many of its members, includ-
ing Seeger himself, went into
the army in 1942.

After the war, his popularity
grew rapidly through his as-
sociation with People’s Songs
and his. vocal group, The
Weavers, which in its active
period (1949-52) became fam-
ous throughout the United
States and sold millions of
‘recordings of its songs.

Seeger now divides his time
among teaching and organiz-
ing musical groups, recording,
and tours like the one which
brought him to Vancouver.

He has made a large number
of recordings, some outstand-
ing, some not so good. The
following selection list is rep-
resentative of his best:

Children: Birds, Beasts, Bugs
and Little Fishes — 10” Folk-
ways 710.

Labor: Talking Union — 12”
Folkways 85-1

General: Pete Seeger Samp-
ler — 10” Folkways 43; Fron-
tier Ballads — 10” Folkways

48-6; Darling Corey — 10”
Folkways 3.
All these recordings are

available from the People’s
Bookstore, 337 West Pender.
10” records: $4.45; 12” records:
$5.95.

Deer hunting is a popular topic of di scussion — and action — these days.
SEPTEMBER 28, 1956 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 13