Various Artists - Pete Seeger's 90th Birthday Benefit, Madison Square Garden, New York City, 5-3-2009, Part 2

Here's the second out of three parts for Pete Seeger's 90th Birthday Benefit concert in 2009.

The concert was quite long, so I decided to split it into three parts. Perhaps in retrospect it would have made more sense to split it into two parts, because the concert reached a sort of emotional peak right in the middle with a group singalong of "We Shall Overcome." It seems an intermission followed that. But what's done is done, and I think it's a good listen this way as well.

Also, Seeger's direct participation is rather strange. He stayed off the stage for most of this concert that was dedicated to him, but he occasionally took part. For instance, he did a solo version of "Amazing Grace" in this part. He returned for the final part. 

One weird thing about this part of this concert is that one song, "Garbage, Garbage, Garbage," was basically a duet between Tom Chapin, a human, and Oscar the Grouch, a Muppet famous for his long role on the TV show "Sesame Street." Normally, I would find this sort of thing silly or gimmicky. But in this case, I think it worked nicely. You can decide for yourself. 

By the way, when I first posted "Part 1" a few days ago, I forgot to include "Part 1" in the title and artwork. That has now been fixed. So you might want to re-download it.

Also, note that the numbering in the song list starts with 21, in case you want to put all three of the albums from this concert into the same folder, to make it easier to listen to the entire concert all at once. 

This album is 51 minutes long.

21 Dink's Song [Fare Thee Well] (Bruce Cockburn, Kate & Anna McGarrigle & Rufus & Martha Wainwright)
22 talk (Tony Triaschka)
23 D-Minor Flourish - Blue Skies - Goofing-Off Suite - Happy Birthday (Bela Fleck & Tony Triaschka)
24 Waist Deep in the Big Muddy (Tom Morello & Taj Mahal)
25 Where Have All the Flowers Gone (Joan Baez)
26 Bring 'Em Home (Ben Bridwell, Patterson Hood, Tao Rodriguez-Seeger, Tyler Ramsey & Warren Haynes)
27 We Shall Overcome (Everyone)
28 talk (Norman Lear)
29 talk (Pete Seeger)
30 Amazing Grace (Pete Seeger)
31 talk (Tom Chapin & Oscar the Grouch)
32 Garbage, Garbage, Garbage (Tom Chapin, Michael Mark & Oscar the Grouch)
33 talk (Kris Kristofferson)
34 A Hole in the Bucket (Kris Kristofferson & Ani DiFranco)
35 Little Boxes (Tommy Sands Irish Band)
36 Michael, Row the Boat Ashore (Rufus & Martha Wainwright, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Tony Trischka & Tim Robbins)
37 Freedom (Richie Havens) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/KRkaXqaV

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/ggUyjMIHnWrDd5Q/file

The cover image is taken from the video of this exact concert. It shows Kris Kristofferson and Ani Di Franco when they duetted on the song "A Hole in the Bucket." 

Various Artists - Pete Seeger's 90th Birthday Benefit, Madison Square Garden, New York City, 5-3-2009, Part 1

Pete Seeger had a remarkable music career, and a remarkably long one. By the time of this concert, he was truly a living legend. This concert celebrated his 90th birthday. (He went on to live four more years, until 2014.) It's staggering to consider he began performing music in public before the start of World War II, and he was still going at this concert, sixty years later! This concert was a benefit for the Clearwater Project, which Seeger had been involved in for a long time. But it also was a tribute to Seeger, and a celebration of his career, including his progressive activism. It's such a big concert that I decided it was best to split it into three parts. This is the first part.

Seeger made such a big musical impact that practically everyone in the folk music genre, and lots of people in other genres like rock, jazz, and country, wanted to be a part of this concert. There are quite a few guests mostly singing Seeger songs, and songs associated with Seeger, for this album, as you can see from the song list. But keep in mind this is just the first of three parts, and most of the "big names" were saved until later.

The music here has never been officially released in an audio format, as far as I know. But it has been released on DVD. It also has been shown on PBS stations. I converted the video to audio, then chopped it into mp3s. Due to that source, the sound quality is excellent.

This album is 50 minutes long. 

01 talk (Native American Indian Cultural Alliance)
02 Blessing of the River (Native American Indian Cultural Alliance)
03 talk (Tim Robbins)
04 talk (John Mellencamp)
05 If I Had a Hammer (John Mellencamp)
06 talk (John Mellencamp)
07 A Ride Back Home (John Mellencamp)
08 talk (Ani DiFranco)
09 Which Side Are You On (Bruce Cockburn & Ani DiFranco)
10 John Henry (Tom Paxton, Tom Morello, Eric Weissberg & Jacob Silver)
11 talk (Michael Franti)
12 Dear Mr. President (Michael Franti, Laura Cortese, Eric Weissberg & Patterson Hood)
13 Oh Freedom (Patterson Hood, Toshi Reagon, Bernice Reagon, Abigail Washburn, Guy Davis & Jacob Silver)
14 talk (Billy Bragg)
15 L'Internationale (Billy Bragg)
16 Union Maid (Billy Bragg, Mike & Ruthy Merenda & Dar Williams)
17 talk (Toshi Reagon)
18 Sailin' Up, Sailin' Down (Pete Seeger, Taj Mahal, Steve Earle, Toshi Reagon & Warren Haynes)
19 False from True (Guy Davis, Steve Earle & Warren Haynes)
20 The Water Is Wide (Emmylou Harris with Teddy Thompson, Kate & Anna McGarrigle & Rufus & Martha Wainwright)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/q3gpWv1z

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/rnhWiIfmBLCCUty/file

The cover image of Seeger is a screenshot I took from a video of this exact concert.

Kate & Anna McGarrigle with Linda Ronstadt & Maria Muldaur - In Concert, Red Creek Cabaret, Rochester, NY, 6-12-1984

I stumbled across this the other day, and thought it interesting enough to post it straight away. I've been wanting to post something from Kate and Anna McGarrigle for some time. The fact that this prominently features Linda Ronstadt and Maria Muldaur made it extra appealing to me.

This comes from a TV special called "Kate and Anna McGarrigle in Concert." (I shortened it to just "In Concert" for the title because extra long titles can cause problems sometimes.) It was held in a small club in the out of the way town of Rochester, New York, for some reason. I took this from a video, converted it to audio, and broke it into mp3s. If you look at the video, only a couple hundred of people filled the club.

Most of the songs just featured Kate and Anna McGarrigle and their band. But on some songs, Linda Ronstadt and/or Maria Muldaur joined in. Sometimes they sang lead, and sometimes backing vocals. You can get the gist of what they did on each song by looking at the song list.  

Kate and Anna McGarrigle were a talented singing and songwriting duo, as well as sisters. (Kate died in 2010 at the age of 63, but Anna is still alive as I write this in 2025.) They never had any hit albums or singles per se, but they were consistently critically acclaimed. Other musical acts liked covering their songs. That's probably why Linda Ronstadt and Maria Muldaur were here, as a kind of thank you since both of them put songs written by McGarrigle on their albums. (And in a better world, "Love Over and Over" should have been a hit - I love that song. I'm glad to see it was included here.)

Kate & Anna McGarrigle - Wikipedia 

01 As Fast as My Little Feet Can Carry Me (Kate & Anna McGarrigle)
02 talk (Kate & Anna McGarrigle)
03 Complainte pour Ste. Catherine (Kate & Anna McGarrigle)
04 talk (Kate & Anna McGarrigle)
05 NaCl [Sodium Chloride] (Kate & Anna McGarrigle)
06 talk (Kate & Anna McGarrigle)
07 The Work Song (Maria Muldaur with Kate & Anna McGarrigle)
08 talk (Kate & Anna McGarrigle)
09 Heart like a Wheel (Linda Ronstadt with Kate & Anna McGarrigle & Maria Muldaur)
10 Travellin' On for Jesus (Kate & Anna McGarrigle with Linda Ronstadt & Maria Muldaur)
11 Dig My Grave (Kate & Anna McGarrigle)
12 talk (Maria Muldaur)
13 The Lying Song (Maria Muldaur)
14 talk (Kate & Anna McGarrigle)
15 [Talk to Me Of] Mendocino (Linda Ronstadt with Kate & Anna McGarrigle)
16 Go Leave (Kate & Anna McGarrigle)
17 talk (Kate & Anna McGarrigle)
18 Tu Vas M'Accompagner [You'll Accomp'ny Me] (Kate & Anna McGarrigle)
19 talk (Kate & Anna McGarrigle)
20 Going Out Looking (Kate & Anna McGarrigle)
21 Love Over and Over (Kate & Anna McGarrigle)
22 talk (Kate & Anna McGarrigle)
23 You Tell Me that I'm Falling Down (Linda Ronstadt, Maria Muldaur, Kate & Anna McGarrigle)
24 Parlez-nous a Boire (Kate & Anna McGarrigle)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/9gQY7WJq

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/d30oooswLOBZKpu/file

I have a difficult time coming up with the cover. The video footage from this concert is very low-res and blurry. So any picture with multiple people in it looked pretty bad. I decided to take screenshots of the heads of Kate McGarrigle and Linda Ronstadt when they were reasonably close to each other. Then I used Photoshop to move them closer still. I also used the Krea AI program to flesh out some more detail.