Hi Don,

That's the reason I put this out. Singing with the banjo is not emphasized enough.
Pete innovated the style of banjo that could accompany songs. I have always liked to sing songs from all over the world. Pete's style affords this. The banjo transcends its roots in Appalachia and hearkens back to Africa where it originated. Pete was influenced by Bascom Lamarr Lunsford Asheville Folk Festival where he hear 80 year old Aunt Samantha Baumgartner play the five string and sing. Later, he heard coal miner Pete Steele from Hamilton, Ohio play an up-picking style on "Pay Day at Coal Creek". Pete transformed the banjo into the versatile accompaniments used to able to play Spanish songs. In order to play and sing "Viva la Quince Brigada",a song from the Lincoln Brigade who fought against Franco's fascism in Spain, he elongated the neck of his banjo to sing in his key and other songs in different keys using a sliding capo, a fifth string fret device from a tie inserted into his banjo neck bought from a model railroad store and he innovated appropriate styles of accompaniments for all kinds of songs.

It was Pete who through the Weavers created the sound used by Dave Guard of the Kingston Trio and other folk song popular groups of the Sixties.

Pete was a major influence in the folk revival; a one-man PR for folk music and folk musicians.

His legacy is his voice and his banjo and natural showmanship which created many followers, myself included.