Pete Seeger

Pete Seeger was an American folk singer, songwriter and banjo player who became a leading figure in the folk revival. Born in New York City in 1919 to two classical musicians, he learned the ukulele and then the five-string banjo, left Harvard in 1938, worked alongside Alan Lomax at the Library of Congress and sang on the radio show Back Where I Come From. He co-founded the Almanac Singers in 1941 and later the Weavers, whose 1950 record of Goodnight, Irene spent thirteen weeks at the top of the charts. He wrote Where Have All the Flowers Gone?, If I Had a Hammer and Turn! Turn! Turn!, all hits for other artists, and helped popularize We Shall Overcome. He also published How to Play the Five-String Banjo in 1948, invented a long-neck banjo, hosted the folk music television series Rainbow Quest and backed the young Bob Dylan. He died in 2014.