Peggy Seeger declares at 90. A final album, one last tour
April 02, 2025
Colin Randall writes: a bit like Cuba, Peggy Seeger has been a thorn in the flesh of the USA for decades. And just as that magnetic island (with all its own imperfections and denial of human rights) stands up defiantly to a bullying big neighbour, Seeger responds to each provocation, each attempt by the "land of the free" to shackle her, by simply refusing to be cowed. In June, she will be 90 and she has decided it is the right moment to call time on a formidable career. Many Americans would be bemused by the cricketing analogy in the headline but Seeger has lived long enough in England to get it.
How many among the millions upon millions of YouTube users who have clicked on Roberta Flack's sensuous smash hit, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, know it was written by a committed Communist for an equally energetic campaigner against the status quo of capitalist society? Not a huge proportion of them would be my guess.
After a lifetime of activism, the American subject of Ewan MacColl's song, Peggy Seeger, is about to retire. She has made one last album, Teleology, which will be released on May 2, and later that month embarks on a farewell tour [dates and venues in my footnote* but note that some are already sold out].
Born in New York, Seeger was among the artists victimised in the wake of the vile workings of Senator Joe McCarthy and his repressive House Un-American Activities Committee. A visit to Communist China led to her US passport being withdrawn. She incurred further wrath - don’t forget that then, as now, free expression in the US was a privilege accorded only to the "right" kind of people.
MacColl was still married to his second wife, Jean Newlove, when he wrote his most famous song in 1957. He was having an affair with Seeger, who had moved back from the UK to the US to work at a Los Angeles radio station.
Two versions describe of how the song materialised. MacColl - who died in 1989 aged 74 - said he wrote it and taught his lover to sing it in a transatlantic phone call after she asked him to compose a song for a play she was appearing in. She said she'd been asked by her radio station to come up with a "hopeful love song" to lighten an otherwise lugubrious folk playlist. Take your pick as you listen to Seeger's treatment on Teleology.
Seeger and MacColl in 1957. Courtesy of Peggy Seeger
From what I have heard so far - apart from The First Time..., just one song, Slow, which is embargoed until April 11 so cannot yet be reproduced, she sings as strongly and compellingly as a woman not much more than half her age. But the passing years take a toll and Seeger feels the time is right to step back. She 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.'
With nine new songs, Seeger's 25th solo album promises to be a fitting valediction after 70 years as a musician, feminist and activist. Slow, co-written with her son Calum, is described as a celebration of "the pleasures of slowing down and clearing one's mind to pay attention to the small things in life." Teleology is a family affair, produced by Calum and also drawing on the talents of another son, Neil, and daughter-in-law Kate St John.
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. Bear in mind she also recorded more than 40 albums with MacColl, five with her brother Mike (Pete Seeger was a half-brother), two with the Critics Group and Frankie Armstrong and a number of other collaborative efforts. Her publicity material puts the total number of albums on which Seeger is heard at more than 100.
Tracklist (with descriptions supplied on Seeger's behalf):
1 Sing About These Hard Times - a rousing opening track about social politics
2 I Want to Meet Paul Simon - joyous tongue-in-cheek ode to a songwriting hero
3 Teleology - a love song to life and chance
4 The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face - the classic love song written for Peggy by her lover Ewan MacColl
5 Slow - J.J.Cale-esque bluesy tribute to the pleasures of slowing down
6 Through The Clouds - a cry from the heart about loss, loneliness and the passage of time
7 Sit Down - a rousing call for protest and personal activism
8 Driftwood - a homage to refugees everywhere
9 No Place Like Home - a song for the displaced
10 Hope - celebrating the most enduring of human emotions
11 Apple Tree - Peggy's poignant farewell, acknowledging that life will move on regardless
* 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
An amazing career, and a life of unflinching courage. One can only wonder what she makes of the United States these days. Or what the American establishment makes of her (that's if she's even on their purblind radar, which is doubtful).
That's quite a tour schedule she's going out on. She deserves a tranquil retirement now and, let's hope, a good few years to come.
Posted by: Bill Taylor | April 02, 2025 at 04:13 PM