PEGGY SEEGER
Final album TELEOLOGY released 2nd May
90th Birthday Final Farewell Tour:
14th May – 28th June
The (absolutely, definitely) final album and tour from Peggy Seeger – songwriter, singer, performer, campaigner, feminist … legend.
Peggy Seeger’s 25th and final solo album, to be released the month before her 90th birthday, is a fitting tribute to over 70 years as a working musician, feminist and activist. Peggy’s 25-date concert tour in May & June will be her very last. After the tour, Peggy will retire from recording and live performance.
Peggy Seeger is totally unique. Sister of Pete Seeger (the great-grandfather of USA folk revival) and partner of the late Ewan MacColl, theorist and practitioner of UK folk revival), she has carved a special niche for herself in both these countries. Trained in both classical and folk music, her experience spans 55 years of performing, travel and songwriting. She’ll sing an unaccompanied traditional ballad, follow it with a tall tale about a circus high-diver, then launch into a topical song about drugs, war, hormones, politicians, unions, women, love or ecology. A multi-instrumentalist (piano, guitar, 5-string banjo, autoharp, English concertina and Appalachian dulcimer), she is probably best known for her feminist songs (such as Gonna Be an Engineer) and for The Ballad of Springhill, which is rapidly becoming regarded as a traditional song.
Born in 1935, she regards herself as “seasoned and in my prime”. She has has made 23 solo recordings and has participated in over a hundred recordings with other artists. A native North American, she made her home in England with MacColl for 35 years. She returned to the USA for sixteen years but has returned permanently to the UK where her 3 children and 9 grandchildren live. She regards England as Home.
Her concerts are informative, entertaining and skilful, full of sly humour. Audience participation in choruses is routine.
Teleology is no apologetic or quiet farewell – she’s going out with a thoughtful, philosophical and very satisfying BANG. Peggy’s voice and songwriting are still major forces to be reckoned with. Nine brand new songs and two reinterpretations span the pillars that have sustained her career. Written and recorded with family members – established musician sons Neill and Calum (Calum also produced the album) and daughter-in-law Kate St John – this album is sheer class, suffused with love and respect.
Teleology is the belief that everything that has happened is an arrow aimed at a target called now, and this album celebrates both the now and the timeline that has led her here.
Peggy says
“It is unavoidable that at 90 I am preoccupied with life, love, loss, old age and death but I’ve never abandoned politics or the compulsion to speak up when something isn’t right. How I got here is still a bit of a mystery, but I’m exactly where I should be right now, and I’m at peace with that.”
Tracks & Topics:
Sing About These Hard Times – a rousing opening track about social politics
I Want to Meet Paul Simon – joyous tongue-in-cheek ode to a songwriting hero
Teleology – a love song to life and chance
The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face – the classic love song written for Peggy by her lover Ewan MacColl (below)
Slow – J.J.Cale-esque bluesy tribute to the pleasures of slowing down
Through The Clouds – a cry from the heart about loss, loneliness and the passage of time
Sit Down – a rousing call for protest and personal activism
Driftwood – a homage to refugees everywhere
No Place Like Home – a song for the displaced
Hope – celebrating the most enduring of human emotions
Apple Tree – Peggy’s poignant farewell, acknowledging that life will move on regardless
the first single “Slow”, written by Peggy Seeger and Calum MacColl, is a tribute to the pleasures of slowing down and clearing one’s mind to pay attention to the small things in life. The bluesy treatment gives a JJ Cale vibe to a walk in the spring sunshine. Musician credits: Peggy Seeger (vocals), Calum MacColl (electric guitar, dobro, backing vocals), Neill MacColl (mandolin), Ben Nicholls (bass guitar, backing vocals), Roy Dodds (drums) is released on 11th April, you can pre save it here: https://redgraperecs.lnk.to/Slow
There is so much to say about Peggy Seeger: a monumental figure in folk music in the UK and USA; a constant musical innovator (aged 77 she was a vocalist on dance producer Broadcaster’s Radio 1 Record of the Week); a style icon (designer Bella Freud named a sweater after her); countless international awards; an active campaigner on the environment, social and feminist issues; 25 solo albums and over 100 collaborative albums. But the best way to appreciate her is Live … check your diaries, they are selling out fast!
Live Tour Dates
May 14 Stirling – Tolbooth
May 15 Glasgow – Cottiers Theatre FINAL TICKETS
May 17 Kendal – Brewery Arts FINAL TICKETS
May 18 Gosforth – Civic Hall
May 21 Salford – Quays Theatre
May 23 Barton on Humber – Ropewalk SOLD OUT
May 24 Otley – The Courthouse SOLD OUT
May 26 Sheffield – Cubley Hall SOLD OUT
May 30 Swansea – Arts Centre FINAL TICKETS
May 31 Cardigan – Rhosygilwen FINAL TICKETS
June 1 Stroud – Subscription Rooms
June 2 Birmingham – Kitchen Garden SOLD OUT
June 5 Basingstoke – Haymarket Theatre
June 6 London – Kings Place SOLD OUT
June 8 Bath – Komedia (Matinee performance)
June 10 New Milton – Forest Arts Centre
June 11 Shoreham – Ropetackle FINAL TICKETS
June 13 Stowmarket – John Peel Centre
June 14 Milton Keynes – The Stables
June 20 Belfast – Black Box
June 21 Dublin – Lark Concert Hall
June 22 Ennis Co Clare – Glor
June 26 Tullamore – Esker Arts Centre
June 27 Cork – St Lukes
June 28 Dun Laoghaire -Pavilion
For further information please visit:
Website: www.peggyseeger.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/peggyseegermusic
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/peggyseegermusic/
YouTube: www.youtube.com/peggyseeger
Spotify Artist Link: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0gXQn7UrpopDb2TIkmIjoU?si=Z0TS4P1mTXStzV8H45mfeg
