“I wrote a letter to ‘Pete Seeger, Beacon, New York’—it became like writing to Santa Claus on the North Pole,” Trischka recollects. “And I stated something to the effect that ‘You’re the pleasant banjo participant within the world.’”
Trischka, who of course became one of the excellent banjo innovators of his era, is a ways from the handiest aspiring musician to be greatly surprised to get hold of a letter from Seeger. In 1970, as a college student in Minnesota, John McCutcheon turned into working via Seeger’s banjo book however became stumped about the way to frail, so he wrote the author for advice. Seeger not most effective wrote back, however stated he was gambling in Minnesota soon and will provide a firsthand demonstration.
Hardly believing he’d acquired this invitation from a person who changed into drawing audiences of thousands, McCutcheon approached Seeger after the live performance. “He changed into taking walks out and had his banjo over his shoulder,” McCutcheon recollects. “He said, ‘Oh, yes, sure, I don't forget you.’ And with the crowd round him, he took out his banjo and said, ‘You use the lower back of your fingernail.’” When McCutcheon requested a way to research greater approximately the frailing style, Seeger advised he move south—to the banjo’s domestic turf in America.
“That become the very first time somebody said to me, you need to move in which it's far to get it,” says McCutcheon. “After hearing this one more time from [musician and musicologist] Guy Carawan mere months later, I determined, OK, that’s what I have to do. And almost 50 years later, here I am, still on that odyssey.”
It’s a remarkable truth that one of the most influential musicians of the remaining century—as a banjo participant, guitarist, songwriter, arranger, track chief, creator, instructor, and activist—became additionally one of the most available. In addition to assembly humans anywhere he traveled, Seeger got mail through the bushel from all over the world, and he made a herculean effort to answer each letter in longhand. As his reputation grew, the job became overwhelming, and he attempted to preserve up by means of dictating letters to be typed, returning letters with responses within the margins, or sending apologetic shape letters. Seeger’s project to answer his mail become no longer only a quirk of character. It meditated the core ideals of a person who devoted his existence, as he frequently placed it, to planting seeds—mainly, encouraging others to make song and get worried in their groups.