I approached last month's concert meeting with some dread. I knew that Pete Seeger was not the singer he used to be. His voice, never a power tool, is dulled by age and infirmity. His hands are slowed by arthritis and his memory by the years. I didn't want to hear a poor relic of a giant.

I was wrong. Pete's voice wavered and his stamina barely survived but the concert was wonderful. The show was a success for the same reason Pete's shows always succeed. He is a great, great folksinger. He still is as one with his audience as he was when he played the Village Vanguard back in the 50's. He gives the audience permission to sing because he knows that they really want to sing. His lack of vocal and instrumental virtuousity works in his favor. He is totally us. He looks like us, he sounds like us. He does not intimidate. (Imagine trying to sing along with Pavarotti or Ella Fitzgerald).

He makes me proud to be a folksinger.

This landmark concert was produced by Dianne Tankle, who books all the concert meetings, and that ain't all she does. She is, perhaps, the single most influential member of the Philadelphia folk music community. A list of her accomplishments has the aura of the fantastic. She chairs the Northeast Folk Alliance and produces the complex showcase held yearly in Split Rock. She was, for years, a member of the Board of Directors of the Clearwater Festival, the national board of the Folk Alliance, the founder of the Swords Into Plowshares concert series, the chairperson of our Spring Thing and, in her spare time, she serves on the PFS Board as secretary. She and her husband, past PFS president Bob Cohen, are the hosts of choice for folksingers on tour when they play Philly. She makes a nice noodle kugel, too.

MM for PFS