Pete Seeger Dies at 94: Remember the American Folk Legend with a Priceless Film from 1947

We’ve got some sad news to report. Last night Pete Seeger, one of Amer­i­ca’s nation­al trea­sures, died at the age of 94. For near­ly 70 years, Seeger embod­ied folk music and its ideals (“com­mu­ni­ca­tion, enter­tain­ment, social com­ment, his­tor­i­cal con­ti­nu­ity, inclu­sive­ness”) and became a tire­less advo­cate for social jus­tice and pro­tect­ing the envi­ron­ment. In recent years, Seeger made his voice heard at Occu­py Wall Street and even paid a vis­it to the 2013 edi­tion of Farm Aid, where he sang “This Land is Your Land”. Above you can watch a film that brings you back to Seeger’s ear­ly days. Released in 1946, To Hear Your Ban­jo Play is an engag­ing 16-minute intro­duc­tion to Amer­i­can folk music, writ­ten and nar­rat­ed by Alan Lomax and fea­tur­ing rare per­for­mances by Woody Guthrie, Bald­win Hawes, Son­ny Ter­ry, Brownee McGhee, Texas Glad­den and Mar­got May­o’s Amer­i­can Square Dance Group. In the film, Seeger is only 27 years old. We’ll miss you dear­ly Pete.

To Hear Your Ban­jo Play resides in our col­lec­tion of 625 Free Online Movies.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Leg­endary Folk­lorist Alan Lomax’s ‘The Land Where the Blues Began’

94-Year-Old Pete Seeger Sings “This Land is Your Land” at Farm Aid

Willie Nel­son, Pete Seeger, and Arlo Guthrie at Occu­py Wall Street

Pete Seeger on “Turn! Turn! Turn!”

Pete Seeger, 91, Per­forms BP Protest Song