New on DVD:
This week’s platinum picks (3 DVDs picked)
By Mike Clark
Pete Seeger — Live in Australia 1963
* * * 1/2, 1963, Acorn, unrated, $25
He appeared last Sunday with Boss Springsteen at Madison Square Garden to celebrate his 90th birthday in a group concert. But here, he is captured in a solo performance in Melbourne and alludes to the infamous church bombing in Birmingham, Ala., that happened the same day.
Back story: When ABC-TV blacklisted Seeger and nixed his appearances on Hootenanny for refusing to sign a loyalty oath, he and his family went on a 10-month world tour that commenced Down Under. With his back to the audience but playing supremely to the TV camera, Seeger gives a sparkling banjo/folk tutorial in one of the most stripped-down public venues you'll ever see.
Extras, extras: Pete honoring blues pioneer Lead Belly; vintage TV interviews; detailed notes by biographer David K. Dunaway.
The Washington Post
Friday, May 1, 2009
COMING ATTRACTIONS
New DVDs you can watch this weekend:
OTHERS OF NOTE
Excerpt
-- Pete Seeger: Live in Australia 1963 (Unrated) This sold-out 1963 concert was part of a world tour by the iconic folk singer. This release also includes footage from his Australian television appearances and three 1945 performances by folk legend Lead Belly, whose playing style Seeger popularized.
Akron Beacon Journal (syndicated)
Sunday, April 26, 2009
By Rich Heldenfels
Beacon Journal popular culture writer
Some notes on DVD releases coming Tuesday . . .
Excerpt
• Pete Seeger will be 90 in May, and has become a venerable figure in American culture. Check out the documentary Pete Seeger: The Power of Song if you don't understand why. And if you want to see Seeger in good form, Tuesday brings Pete Seeger: Live in Australia 1963 (Acorn, $24.99), recorded during a world tour. I especially like the way he immediately tries to warm up his rather stiff audience with a sing-along.
The DVD includes a concert recorded by Australian television (even more significant, because Seeger was blacklisted from U.S. TV appearances at the time), as well as extra material from other interviews and performances on Australian TV. There's also a booklet with more information about Seeger in Australia.
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Sunday, April 12, 2009
DVDS SEEN : Last hurrahs for folk legend
BY JACK SCHNEDLER
Some younger members of the throng on Washington's National Mall for the Jan. 18 Lincoln Memorial concert celebrating President Barack Obama's inauguration were no doubt puzzled by the presence of the banjoist with the snow-white beard who joined Bruce Springsteen in singing "This Land Is Your Land."
Who was that geezer, anyhow?
He was, in fact, Pete Seeger - a prime mover in the revival of folk singing that swept America in the 1950s and a pioneer of the protest music that swelled in the 1960s.
Mostly retired from performing in recent decades as his never-stellar singing voice faded with age, Seeger has persevered as an environ- mental activist focused on cleaning up New York's Hudson River. Springsteen rekindled interest in this globetrotting troubadour's songs with a 2006 tribute album,
We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions.
As 2009 unfolds, Seeger appears to be enjoying something of a last hurrah. In the wake of his Lincoln Memorial appearance, he'll be squarely in the spotlight May 3 during the Pete Seeger 90th Birthday Celebration at New York's Madison Square Garden.
Staged as a benefit for his Hudson River sloop Clearwater, the mammoth concert will bring together Springsteen and a wealth of other musical talent, some with a pedigree stretching back decades, if not as far as Seeger's. We're talking the likes of Joan Baez, Arlo Guthrie, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Tom Paxton and Richie Havens.
Another notable mark of this latter-day focus on Seeger is an archival treasure titled Pete Seeger: Live in Australia 1963 ($24.99), the debut album in the Folk Icons DVD series from Acorn Media and Reelin' in the Years Productions.
Due for release April 28, this footage (rediscovered in 2006) of a 105-minute Seeger concert in Melbourne during a 10-month world tour is utterly captivating for anyone with even a passing interest in folk music. The DVD shows Seeger at the peak of his prowess as a performer who possessed a singular knack of transporting audiences figuratively onto the stage with him as they clapped or sang along from their seats.
The DVD comprises 28 songs on what the producers' notes call "a typical repertoire from the late 1950s and early '60s." Among them is an eclectic mix of such enduring titles as "Skip to My Lou," "Down by the Riverside," "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore," "The Bells of Rhymney," "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" and "If I Had a Hammer."
A medley of four songs written by Seeger mentor Woody Guthrie includes the playful "I'm Gonna Mail Myself to You" and the rollicking "Union Maid." There are songs from Africa, South America, Scotland and Japan, presented in an era when the notion of world music was still nascent.
By the end of the concert, facial expressions suggest that just about all 3,000 Australians in the audience are having a wonderful time - no surprise to anyone who has ever attended a Seeger concert in the United States.
As lagniappe, the CD's 55 minutes of bonus footage include a rare 1945 snippet of three work songs performed by one of Seeger's heroes, Leadbelly, the itinerant sharecropper known as "the king of the 12-string guitar."
In the work-song vein, Seeger sings "The Frozen Logger" in flabbergasting fashion. Without missing a beat, he chops wood from a sizable log with a hefty ax before his live studio audience.
"If attempted today, we can only imagine the team of lawyers that would be required to handle the barrage of lawsuits arising from the wood chips flying into the audience," observe the CD's producers' notes. "Fortunately, those were simpler days."
Midwest Book Review
Internet Book Watch
April 2009
The Library DVD Shelf
Pete Seeger: Live in Australia 1963
Reelin' in the Years Productions, LLC
c/o Acorn Media Group
8515 Georgia Avenue, Suite 620, Silver Spring, MD 20910-3403
$24.99 www.acornmedia.com
Pete Seeger: Live in Australia 1963 is a black-and-white DVD capturing the 1963 Melbourne concert of folk musician Pete Seeger, who at the time was blacklisted and barred from American television. In Australia he was widely beloved and gave sold-out performances. Nearly an hour of bonus footage taken from Seeger's other Australian television appearances rounds out this must-have DVD for folk lovers. Additional bonuses include a 16-page booklet with liner notes by Seeger biographer David K. Dunaway, rare photographs, and interviews Seeger gave on Australian news programs. Seeger's iconic banjo, guitar, and mellifluous voice are a treasure to listen to, in this enthusiastically recommended DVD. 105 minutes.
In the Groove magazine
May 2009
A Folk Legend Turns 90! - If it wasn’t for folksinger/activist Pete Seeger (along with folklorist John Lomax) we might not be singing many of the home-made songs we all learned as a child and still sing today at folk festivals. Seeger turns 90 on May 3rd and last year I recommended the terrific DVD bio of this living legend. A number of Seeger related audio/video projects have arrived recently but none is as important as the DVD Pete Seeger: Live in Australia 1963, the first in a new Folk Icons series produced by David Peck’s Reelin’ in the Years company, and now released by Acorn Media. As with the superb Jazz Icons DVDs that I’ve covered before, Peck seeks out rare copies of television appearances recorded outside the US by national television networks. This time it’s the Australian Broadcasting Company to who we give thanks. Seeger began his 10-month world tour in Melbourne and the ABC captured the full two-hour concert with just Seeger, a banjo and a guitar. This was a typical Seeger audience of young and old – 3,000 people in the Town Hall- and the camera captures how they slowly get used to singing along with Pete. The bonus features – along with detailed booklet of notes – add even more. In Sidney, Seeger presented a half-hour show about Lead Belly and included the only three filmed performances of the man who gave us “Goodnight Irene” and other classics. (So we actually get two “folk icons” for the price of one.) Other interviews fill out this fully packed DVD. Essential for the folk music collector. Seeger may actually be better appreciated “down under” than he is here in the US. A small Australian reissue label, Omni Recording Company, has just released Pete Seeger Now, placing the last three Lps that Seeger recorded for Columbia Records - between 1969 and 1971 – on a two-CD set, and adding a previously unreleased anti-war song (transferred from a 45rpm promo). These albums have never been on CD before and show the two major interests that Seeger had the: the war in Vietnam and his love for the environment. These were heavily produced albums and the digital transfers seem off-balance with some tracks having distorted sound, though his passion is there. (The CD is distributed in the US and should be available on line.). For more traditional Seeger you can turn to the five-disc “box” – American Favorite Ballads – from Smithsonian/Folkways. This set combines the five individual CDs released separately over the last few years and covered here before. Each disc is accompanied by the informative and detailed liner notes from the previous releases and puts all those standards which Pete taught us all in one handy place. Happy Birthday Pete!
-Steve Ramm
Staten Island Advance (syndicated)
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
DVD Releases
Richard T. Ryan
Excerpt
Acorn Media is releasing a trio of interesting titles. There's a 1963 concert by Pete Seeger in Australia ($24.95) that features the legendary singer performing "If I Had a Hammer," "Down by the Riverside" and many others.
Inland Northwest Bluegrass Association newsletter
July/August 2009
Reviews
Music DVD
Pete Seeger Live in Australia 1963 (acornmedia.com). New issue of a film documentary of Seeger appearances down under in ’63. Includes 16-page booklet by Seeker biographer David K. Dunaway. Great watching.
WEB/SMALL NEWSPAPERS
LINKS and EXCERPTS
DVD Talk
http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/37743/pete-seeger-live-in-australia-1963/
Review: 4/5 stars. “Any fan of Pete Seeger or the development of American music, folk or otherwise, should not pass up this stellar performance, presented with the best possible image and sound, along with a very interesting group of supplements, by Acorn Media and Reelin' in the Years Productions. Highly recommended.”
Monsters and Critics
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/dvd/reviews/article_1484158.php/Pete_Seeger_Live_in_Australia_1963_-_DVD_Review
Review: Rating 5 out of 5. “This performance lasts 105 minutes, and is amazing to watch… There is so much in the music, and added to that is Pete Seeger’s personality and comments, that produce a compelling sense of the history of the time as well as the entertainment value of the performance… accompanied by an excellent fifteen page booklet”
The Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-giltz/dvds----get-ready-for-sta_b_192472.html
Review: “This is a rough TV print but perfectly serviceable and it captures Seeger perfectly: he was never happier than when he was in front of an audience, passing along the tradition of folk music and teaching people a new song.”
The A.V. Club / The Onion
http://www.avclub.com/articles/june-19-2009,29444/
Review: “There was a very good 2007 documentary about Pete Seeger called Pete Seeger: The Power Of Song, but the best way to understand the folksinging icon is to watch Live In Australia 1963 (Reelin’ In The Years/Acorn), a nice-looking, nice-sounding video-to-film transfer of a nearly two-hour black-and-white TV broadcast. Seeger stands onstage in a big concert hall with just a microphone and his guitar and banjo, while an overflow crowd sits on folding chairs all around him. Seeger urges them into sing-alongs of well-known old folk songs, though he lets them off the hook when he gets to the more political material. (“You don’t have to sing along if you disagree.”) He tells funny anecdotes about Woody Guthrie, takes note of recent murders of black children in the American South, and just generally holds court, effortlessly, jumping easily from history to social engagement to spiritual uplift. He even ends with a plea to look at folk music as an evolving, ongoing form, then backs his claim by playing songs by two youngsters: Tom Paxton and Bob Dylan. The Live In Australia DVD is supplemented by an hour of vintage interviews and performances, but the main program is the most riveting. Watching this film, it’s easy to see why Seeger’s work has continued to have such an impact on popular culture. He was an entertainer with rare purpose. Grade: A
DVD Verdict
Link: http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/peteseeger1963.php
Review: Grade 90/100. “The bonus features listed above are stellar…Seeger will always be a lightning rod of controversy and clarity. If you want some insight as to why, check out Live in Australia 1963. One viewing and all will become clear.
The Green Man Review
http://www.greenmanreview.com/film/film_seegerliveaustralia.html
Review: “Fantastic.”
TVSoundOff
http://web.me.com/writa1/tvsoundoff/DVD_Reviews/Entries/2009/5/1_Pete_Seeger_Live_-_on_DVD.html
Review: “this DVD filled me with so much joy.”
Bay Area News Group (Newspapers - Oakland Tribune, Contra Costa Times, among others)
http://www.contracostatimes.com/movies/ci_12256367?nclick_check=1
DVD Column: “"Pete Seeger: Live in Australia 1963": The folk-music icon in concert; many extras”
Blogcritics Magazine
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2009/04/09/155911.php
Review: “It should be required viewing for anyone who has even the slightest interest in the history of American music… The bonus material was probably worthy of its own DVD… Live In Australia 1963 by Pete Seeger would make a fine addition to any music collection as it presents and explores a too often forgotten form of American music by one of its masters.”
Cleveland.com (Plain Dealer’s website)
http://www.cleveland.com/movies/index.ssf/2009/04/hotel_for_dogs_nothing_but_the.html
Review: “Blacklisted and barred from American television because he wouldn't sign a loyalty oath, Pete Seeger went on a 10-month, 22-country tour, including this performance in Melbourne. Humbly walking out among an adoring audience equipped only with a banjo, the folk singer performs "If I Had a Hammer," "Kum Ba Ya," "Skip to My Lou" and many more classics. 105 minutes, black and white. DVD extras: interviews and performances on Australian television; a 16-page booklet; and Seeger singing and discussing the songs of Lead Belly, plus three rare performances by Lead Belly filmed in 1945. From Acorn Media. www.folkicons.com.”
Wilmington on DVD / The Daily Page and Movie City News
http://www.moviecitynews.com/columnists/wilmington/2009/090414dvd.html
http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=25619
Review: A- “this genuinely thrilling live TV concert in Melbourne’s Town Hall -- so packed that much of the audience had to sit behind Pete on the stage…Throughout, he sings and plays with a lusty joy and soaring spirits that never slow, never falter. He gladdens your heart…Seeger was a fine singer and a fine player. But he was a great performer and a great communicator, which is probably why he was on the blacklist so long. He wore his heart proudly on his sleeve -- with “Kum Ba Ya,” which has become the standard “youthful political idealism” joke punch line -- and that’s why he was never even remotely hip. It doesn’t matter. Not many people can do or could ever do what Pete Seeger did up on that stage at Melbourne. See, and hear, for yourself.“
Fulvue Drive-in
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8456/Pete+Seeger+%E2%80%93+The+Power+Of+Song+(Miriam+DVD)+++Live+In+Australia+1963+(Acorn+Media+DVD
Review: “Live In Australia 1963 is a fine concert with Seeger in top form and one of the best concerts in what was a 10-month world tour…the concert is as much a testament to his greatness as the portrait, which is why we strongly recommend both DVDs.”
Brattleboro Reformer (VT, Newspaper)
http://www.reformer.com/ci_12209171?IADID=Search-www.reformer.com-www.reformer.com
Review: “I can heartily recommend this disc on the basis of Seeger's dynamic performance.”
Express Milwaukee
http://www.expressmilwaukee.com/blog-3187-get-folked.html
Review: “Pete Seeger Live in Australia 1963 is a valuable document of a man who tried to lead the world to a better future through the songs of the past.”
Hollywood Previews
http://la.hollywoodpreviews.com/?s=dvds&t=featured_titles&u=pete-seeger-live-in-australia-1963
Posted press release with box art
Pete Seeger Appreciation Page (The site is second only to Wikipedia’s Seeger page when you Google Seeger’s name)
http://www.peteseeger.net/
Posted press release
IMDB and Digital Spy
http://www.digitalspy.com/music/a150611/pete-seeger-concert-gets-dvd-release.html
http://www.imdb.com/news/ni0721245/
Release announcement. “Pete Seeger concert gets DVD release. A historic gig by folk legend Pete Seeger has been announced for release a few days before the singer's 90th birthday. The 105-minute concert film, Pete Seeger: Live In Australia 1963, will be available on DVD on April 28. Recorded in Melbourne, the disc includes over 25 songs from the founding member of The Weavers, including 'If I Had A Hammer', 'A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall' and 'Down By The Riverside'. The DVD also boasts almost an hour of bonus footage including three rare performances from Lead Belly in 1945. On May 3, Seeger's 90th birthday will be marked by a benefit concert featuring performances from Bruce Springsteen, Joan Baez and Seeger imself.”
Home Theater Forum
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/forum/thread/291161/htf-dvd-review-pete-seeger-live-in-australia-1963
Review: “Fans of folk songs in general and Pete Seeger in particular will want to see this DVD. The concert is wonderfully engaging, and the extras are informative and entertaining. At one point an interviewer asks him if the increasing popularity of folk songs might diminish the genre. The question struck me as an invitation for Pete Seeger, an authentic folk singer, to criticize some of the more pop-oriented folk groups which had sprung up in the early sixties. To his credit, Seeger does not take the bait. If he will not criticize someone who calls him an enemy of the United States, why would he even entertain the thought of disparaging other singers? No, Pete Seeger would just encourage them to keep on singing - just as he has done.”
Beaver County Times (PA, Newspaper)
http://www.timesonline.com/articles/2009/07/05/entertainment/scott_tady/doc4a4e3bbee7975389253794.txt
Column: “And while the audience is excessively sedate and practically sitting on their hands — is that what concert crowds were like before the Beatles? — Seeger’s nimble banjo-picking, subtle wit and ornery grin eventually gets everyone singing and yodeling.”
