Mike Seeger
Best known for
Banjo
Mike Seeger was one of the central figures of the urban folk revival, founder of the New Lost City Ramblers and a multi-instrumentalist whose Folkways field recordings, performances, and ethnomusicological work documented and reanimated Southern traditional music for two postwar generations.
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- Born August 15, 1933 in New York City and raised in Maryland and Washington, D.C.; son of pioneering ethnomusicologist Charles Seeger and composer Ruth Crawford Seeger.
- Half-brother of Pete Seeger; full brother of folk performer Peggy Seeger and Penny Seeger.
- Self-taught on a long list of traditional instruments — banjo, autoharp, fiddle, guitar, mandolin, dulcimer, dobro, harmonica, and jaw harp — starting at age 18.
- Co-founded the New Lost City Ramblers in 1958 with John Cohen and Tom Paley (later replaced by Tracy Schwarz); the group's exacting recreations of 1920s and 1930s 78-rpm hillbilly records influenced a generation of folk-revival musicians, Bob Dylan among them.
- Released more than thirty solo and documentary recordings primarily on Folkways and Smithsonian Folkways, including Old Time Country Music (1962), Tipple, Loom & Rail (1965), Berkeley Farms (1972), Southern Banjo Sounds (1998), and True Vine (2003).
- Worked as a field recorder and folklorist documenting Southern traditional musicians, producing and curating recordings of artists who would otherwise have remained outside the folk-revival's reach.
- Earned six Grammy nominations and four NEA grants, including the 2009 Bess Lomax Hawes National Heritage Fellowship — the U.S. government's highest honor in folk and traditional arts.
- Died of cancer at home in Lexington, Virginia on August 7, 2009 at age 75; inducted posthumously into the IBMA Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2018.
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David GrismanPlayed on recordings with David Grisman
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Hazel Dickens and Alice GerrardPlayed on recordings with Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard
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Mike SeegerPlayed on recordings with Mike Seeger
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Ralph StanleyPlayed on recordings with Ralph Stanley
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Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain BoysPlayed on recordings with Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys
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The New Lost City RamblersPlayed on recordings with The New Lost City Ramblers
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Alice Gerrard and Mike SeegerPlayed on recording with Alice Gerrard and Mike Seeger
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Bill CliftonPlayed on recording with Bill Clifton
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Bill Clifton and the Dixie Mountain BoysPlayed on recording with Bill Clifton and the Dixie Mountain Boys
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The Country GentlemenPlayed on recording with The Country Gentlemen
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The Stanley BrothersPlayed on recording with The Stanley Brothers
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Tim and Mollie O’BrienPlayed on recording with Tim and Mollie O’Brien
