Press Release
Source: Hello Wendy PR
Multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter John McCutcheon.
The Pete Seeger tribute album for John McCutcheon has been a long time coming. The renowned multi-instrumentalist was eleven years old when his mother insisted he watch with her the news reports from the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom—the historic event during which Martin Luther King, Jr., gave his “I Have a Dream” speech, and during which Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, and Peter Paul and Mary helped to cement the relationship between mainstream folksingers and the civil rights movement.
What McCutcheon saw that day would be seared into his memory forever. It wasn’t only the historical images and inspiring rhetoric that moved the young boy, but also the music.
“That’s where I discovered folk music,” he says. “I’d never heard of it but there was Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, and Peter, Paul and Mary. Pete was the next logical thing [to discover] but I didn’t know anything about him until I got that album.”
The album he’s referring to was Seeger’s We Shall Overcome album, recorded live at Carnegie Hall that same year (1963). It presented the folksinger in his natural habitat, in front of an audience that was at once profoundly moved by his stirring, empathic performance, and eager to participate with him.
From his beginnings, however, Seeger’s influence was so indelible that McCutcheon named his 1975 debut after a song he learned from the late folksinger, “How Can I Keep from Singing?” To Everyone in All the World: A Celebration of Pete Seeger is McCutcheon’s 40th album release and is released on January 11, 2019 via McCutcheon’s Appalseed Records.
In the 55 years since, McCutcheon has released a vast amount of music and performed in countless venues, in the spirit of moving rather than impressing people. On this journey, he has authored children’s books, been active in community organizing, founded the first traveling musician’s union, received awards and accolades and was called “the greatest multi-instrumentalist I’ve ever heard by the late Johnny Cash.”
On this new body of work, with Beausoleil, McCutcheon turned “If I Had a Hammer” into a Cajun dance. With Corey Harris, he transformed “Talking Union” from a talking blues to a funky rap.
“Well May the World Go” got the full-throttle bluegrass treatment from the fellows of Hot Rize. “Guantanamera” was served up with masterful Latin flavor thanks to his friend, Nicaraguan vocalist Katia Cardenal (of Duo Guardabarranco).
Though classics like these, as well as “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy” and “Turn, Turn, Turn,” are delivered here with equal servings of honesty and artistic aplomb, McCutcheon made a conscious decision to fold in some songs that fans might not typically think of as being part of Seeger’s expansive canon, such as “Die Gedanken Sind Frei”—a freedom song from World War II-era Germany—and Melvina Reynolds’ “God Bless the Grass.”
All told, To Everyone in All the World is a fitting tribute to the late folksinger, whose life’s work was an equal balance of collecting songs, singing them, and encouraging others to add their voices to the choir. Here, McCutcheon has added not only his own vital voice but those of many of his dearest friends.
McCutcheon said it best in the liner notes he penned himself:
“Pete was more than merely a musician. He was a man of unique courage. He was generous, humble, and as flawed as any of us humans can be. But he was relentless in his willingness to learn and to grow. He gave us songs to fill our throats and our hearts. May the many lessons he left us help us put our own hands on the plow. He did it well for 94 years. It’s our turn now.”
