7369 old music 2402 - KET

include Treasures & Tears and
Eventide: Songs of Celebration. They
have also collaborated on several
educational projects, such as a cassette/
filmstrip package for the National
Geographic Educational Media Project
called “Storytelling in North America:
Stories in Song.”
Mike Seeger
(Programs 5 and 14; guest
appearances on Programs 2 and 8)
Mike was raised in Maryland by
parents who were composers and
musicologists (music philosophers). He
and his three sisters learned traditional
mountain music through family singing
and by listening to recordings of
traditional singers. He was singing
traditional songs by age 4, and in his
late teens he started playing string
instruments in earnest.
Over the years, Mike has learned to
play nine instruments: autoharp, guitar,
banjo, mandolin, fiddle, French harp
(harmonica), jaw harp, quills (pan
pipes), and lap dulcimer. He plays in a
variety of traditional mountain styles
on each instrument and sings many
types of traditional songs, some
originally from England but most from
America. He has played with squaredance
and bluegrass bands; worked as a
music teacher, kitchen attendant, file
clerk, and recording engineer; and
attended a radio technical school.
In 1958, he started performing on his
own and helped form the New Lost
City Ramblers, the first urban group to
play traditional-style music. Performing
real traditional mountain music was a
novel idea at that time, but Mike has
made it his full-time occupation since
1960. He has made 37 albums, either
solo, with his sister Peggy, or with the
New Lost City Ramblers (which
disbanded in 1979), and has toured and
appeared on TV and radio throughout
North America, western Europe,
western Africa, Japan, Australia, and
New Zealand.
Mike’s work collecting the music of
traditional musicians on location
throughout the South has resulted in
some 25 published LP recordings. He
has received grants from the National
Endowment for the Arts and fellowships
from the Smithsonian Institution
and the John Simon Guggenheim
Memorial Foundation.
He currently performs at concerts,
schools, universities, and festivals;
teaches at summer schools devoted to
traditional music; collects traditional
music and dances; writes a monthly
column for Frets magazine; and makes
a lot of music for pleasure. He lives
near Lexington, VA.
KET, The Kentucky Network 65