Mike Seeger

Renowned folk musician Mike Seeger came in to talk to us today about “Southern old time music” and the various instruments used to create it. He was a small fellow with square shoulders and a head of disheveled hair ala Beethoven and a nose that matched the curve of his fiddle. His wife Alexia sat serenely by smiling the whole time with her long hair cascading over her diminutive figure. What follows are basically my notes from his presentation which an intimate concert with a legend in folk music. There are a couple of instruments that he presented (such as the fiddle) which are missing.

Introduced in the U.S. with the first European immigrants during the 1700s, the juice harp was an instrumental mouthpiece with a reed that vibrated and gave off one note. Seeger somehow breathed life into it creating seven notes. If you want to buy a juice harp, he warned, buy one from Austria. The ones made in the United States are discouraging for those trying to learn the instrument.

The first banjo he showed us was a gourd banjo which consisted of a skin stretched across the opening in the gourd, a single piece of wood as the handle, several strings with one string which stopped in the middle and gave off a higher sound. The string was made of lamb gut or the skin of an “unborn calf skin” if I heard correctly. The instrument is a vestige of the 1800s minstrel tradition when it took off as a fad and entered the theatre tradition. That little gourd created an awfully solid sound.

The newer factory-made banjo differed from the old-fashioned banjos in that they had frets (grooves on the arm). His newer style banjo also created an awfully strong.

The six-string guitar became standardized in the 1890s when factory guitars first began to be made cheaply. You could get a guitar for as little as $3 made with steel strings (as opposed to the expensive strings which were previously brought in from Europe) and native woods. It was the democratization of the guitar. And it was the African-American community that first started playing the guitar and incorporating it into their song tradition. The guitar he played for us today was a Martin guitar which went for $40 in the 1930’s and which he purchased in the 1970s for a steal at $300. Today, the guitar would go for a couple thousand dollars.

Seeger spoke at length about Elizabeth Cotten, a mentor of his who taught him how to play. When he was a youth, he once asked her if she could teach him how to play. She responded that she couldn’t teach him but she could show him and show him he did.

The last instrument he showed us was a dulcimer something similar to a zither comprised of several strings and meant to be played flat on a floor or tabletop.

Originally from Germany, the harmonica was used in blues. One style was created by slurring the tongue. The preferred blue style was created by breathing in.

Bluegrass which came out of the “old time Southern music” was designed to be performance music. The bands were comprised at least four pieces with a fiddle player, a banjo player, someone playing a big guitar (with a pick), a mandolin for melody and string bass. Everybody sang.

He and his wife Alexia spoke at length about the Carter family (the family Johnny Cash’s wife June Carter came from) who has clearly been a big influence in folk music. The family had a unique style that became popular, was copied, and today sounds common though it wasn’t at the time. The Carters greatly influenced Bob Dylan and even the Grateful Dead. He played us “By and By”, “Cumberland Gap”, and was joined in by the Institute’s own Ben Hesse for “Old Joe Clark”. Dan Hanczar one of the Pittsburgh locals joined in on “Going down the road feeling bad (glad)”.

Here were the songs he played for us:

A capella: "Wild Boar Song" (also known as "Old Bangum")
On the fiddle: "Old Joe Clark", "Bachelor's Hall".
On the gourd banjo: "The Cuckoo"
Demonstrating single string picking with harmonics: "Lost Gander"
On the guitar: "Wildwood Flower" by Maybelle Carter, "Freight Train" by Elizabeth "Libba" Cotton.
On the ukulele: "Skip to my lou"
On the autoharp: "I am Going to the West" by Connie Dover
On the harmonica: "Sally Goodin", "Sittin' On Top of the World".
Also: "Bye and Bye I'm going to see the king" (aka "I wouldn't mind dying"), "Oh, Take Me Back" by the Carter Family, "Liza Jane", "Going Down the Road Feeling Bad (Glad)".

You can find more information on Mike Seeger at:
http://mikeseeger.info/