Obit: Mike Seeger RIP (1933-2009)

Subject: Mike Seeger
From: Mary Katherine
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 11:07 AM

It is with profound sadness that I must tell you that our dear friend Mike Seeger has chosen to end the treatments against his cancer, and has entered hospice care. He is clear about and at peace with this decision. Alexia feels that it will not be long. There so many on this list who are his friends that I thought this a good way to let you all know, per Alexia's wishes.

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger
From: Severn
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 11:24 AM

One of my all-time musical heroes. I wish him the best as both long-time fan and cancer survivor. His body of work as a singer, multi-instrumentalist, collector, educator and presenter of Old-Time musicians has been an amazing treasure.

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger
From: maeve
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 11:26 AM

Thank you for letting us know.

maeve

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 11:29 AM

I can't believe it - just after losing Sandy Paton. What a loss to the world.

I met Mike a few times, over the years, though I doubt he'd remember me. I saw him perform several times, both solo and with the New Lost City Ramblers. Today I am holding Mike and Alexia in my care - may he be comfortable and rest easy.

Dan

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger
From: Fred McCormick
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 11:30 AM

Dear God another one! I just hope that when the end finally arrives, it will be as peaceful as can be.

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 11:31 AM

I am profoundly saddened to hear this news. I just lost my youngest brother to cancer this month after a long and painful battle. He had made a similar decision.

I have had the chance to see Mike perform twice in person. First, with the New Lost City Ramblers in the old Ash Grove venue many years ago in Los Angeles and, more recently, with Tom Paxton and others at University of California, San Diego. Speaking with him and with Tom after the performance, I had the sense that they were both just what they seemed; real down-to-earth people with a love of sharing. What a legacy. My deep condolences to his family and legion of fans and friends.

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger
From: DonMeixner
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 11:31 AM

Another one.
Mike was the first person I heard play a melodic Autoharp. I have enjoyed THe New Lost City Ramblers for decades but it was two summers ago in Skaneateles,NY I finally saw the original band perform. Skaneateles has a Clasical Music series through the summer. Some one on the committee was wise enough to know that Classical Music in America isn't just a symphony or a string quartet.

Sometimes it is people like Tracy, Tom, and Mike.

Don

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 11:35 AM

Sadly wishing him a good end, with fond memories of his last Tucson visit. And sending love to Alexia...

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger
From: RangerSteve
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 12:00 PM

One of the first albums I ever bought was and NLCR LP, back in the '60s. I've been a fan ever since. This is sad news. I've never been good at finding words for situations like this, so let me just say that I agree with everything already said on this thread. And Thanks, Mike, for all the great music.

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger
From: Wesley S
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 12:07 PM

What a gifted artist. Thank goodness we have a huge catalog of musical treasures of Mikes to listen to for many years to come. He exposed so many of us to a rich tradition of music.

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger
From: open mike
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 12:15 PM

I did not know he had health issues.
In case there is anyone out there who
is not familiar with him, (i hope that
everyone is in the know) here is his
web site

Mike Seeger has devoted his life to singing and
playing Music from True Vine - the home music made
by American southerners before the media age.

Holding him close with best wishes...

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger
From: Bill D
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 12:21 PM

I saw Mike first in about 1961, in Wichita, Kans, with NLCR....then several times more over the years, at the Smithsonian Festival, at Winfield, and at several local concerts....and finally last year with Peggy & Pete. He always gave a performance his best and I first saw an autoharp played by Mike.

I will think good and happy thoughts of him as he deals with this. I hope he feels all his friends & fans caring and wishing him an easy time.

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger - entering hospice (July, 2009)
From: Bill D
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 12:42 PM

If you'd like to see & hear Mike at his best, here is an hour video of him at the Kennedy Center in Wash DC in 2003

http://www.kennedy-center.org/programs/millennium/artist_detail.cfm?artist_id=SEEGERMIKE#

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger - entering hospice (July, 2009)
From: GUEST,Ballyholme
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 12:54 PM

What a shock. I saw him earlier this month when he played an open air gig in our neighnorhood park.

Knowlegeable, gracious and entertaining, he delivered a superb evening's music to an audience most of whome would never dream of going anywhere near a folk gig. Most of them left with a greater appreciation of our nation's traditional music.

Thanks Mike.

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger - entering hospice (July, 2009)
From: topical tom
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 12:55 PM

A great artist and student of old time music. I first saw him at the Winnipeg Folk Festival with the New Lost City Ramblers back in 1979.I later saw him on several occasions and he was a superb performer at all times.I believe he also played and sang Cajun music for a time as well.I too did not know of his illness.May he receive solace and comfort at the hospice.An icon of folk music blessed with great talent and diversity.

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger - entering hospice (July, 2009)
From: GUEST,Greycap
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 01:54 PM

I didn't know my main influence and tutor of American folk music was ill. I'm appalled by the news.
Oh, Mike, what can I say?

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger - entering hospice (July, 2009)
From: Leadfingers
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 02:20 PM

If this IS the end , may it be peaceful

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger - entering hospice (July, 2009)
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 04:22 PM

A hero of old time music and a friend to us all. I first met him in a singaround at the Swarthmore Folk Festival the year Pete was headlining there—must have been what, 1957? Just a young guy not much older than me, and the first I ever saw play oldtime fiddle in person. He and Peggy were a revelation then, and have been ever since.

Mike was most generous in helping with my book a couple of years back, though he surely had all sorts of other things to think of and occupy his time. I can think of hardly anyone whose work has opened up avenues to us all, touched us so much and whose spirit has so gladdened and enlivened us.

Just one example: his unearthing of Dock Boggs and the sensitive recordings of Dock he made over time, his wonderfully exploratory notes, and his encyclopedic knowledge that backed it all up.

Multiply that by all the other artists he brought us, plus his own music with the NLCR (and other bands) and solo ... I will personally miss his wacky sense of humor, too. His fine oldtime voice. His picking, his fiddling. His wry, disarming honesty. And ... The list is endless.

This comes just after writing Caroline Paton a note concerning Sandy's passing. I guess we are all feeling a bit more mortal than we ever did before!

Mike, may you be with us as long as you wish; may you go as easily as falling asleep. You have meant so much.

Bob

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger - entering hospice (July, 2009)
From: Stewart
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 04:30 PM

Very sad news!
He was a treasure
keeping the old music alive.

I had the good fortune to hear him
in Seattle a year ago.
No indication that he had any health problems,
what a wonderful concert.
We will all miss him.

S. in Seattle

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger - entering hospice (July, 2009)
From: Amos
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 04:50 PM

Bill: THat link just goes to the Artist page, as does the "Play this Performance" button on that page. Seems a self-referential loop?


A

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger - entering hospice (July, 2009)
From: lisa null
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 04:54 PM

What an amazing and gracious musician who cares not only about the music but the traditional singers and musicians who passed it on to him and to us. His taste is impeccable, his humor infectious, his musicianship-- not only splendid but always interesting. A giant in his unpretentious way. I do hope he will go bathed in the affection and respect of not only friends and family but of the thousands whose lives he has touched with instrument and song.

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger - entering hospice (July, 2009)
From: Bill D
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 05:00 PM

Not sure Amos... I just clicked on the "Play this Performance" button, and it played...

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger - entering hospice (July, 2009)
From: Ebbie
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 05:04 PM

"Mike, may you be with us as long as you wish; may you go as easily as falling asleep" Bob Coltman

I like that very much and second it. Thanks, Bob.

Good heavens. It seems like I've been a little teary for a month.

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger - entering hospice (July, 2009)
From: GUEST,Guy Wolff
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 05:20 PM

I am so thankful to Mike for tons of great music and straight ahead presentation on some very interesting styles of banjo . What joy he has given me . All the very best to him on all the roads ahead of him . Guy

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger - entering hospice (July, 2009)
From: Peace
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 05:27 PM

He was a very nice guy. Met him at the 1967 Newport Folk Festival and he was both kind and considerate to a wannabe. A real gentleman and wonderful musician. RIP, Mr Seeger.

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger - entering hospice (July, 2009)
From: The Sandman
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 05:36 PM

what terrible news.
I only knew his music,not the man,really sad news.

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger - entering hospice (July, 2009)
From: Jeri
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 05:39 PM

I don't know how sick he is just yet. One of the best sessions I ever was involved with was in a hospice, for a friend who is there.

He was a joy whenever I saw him perform. I hope he feels the love and gratitude of all of us whose lives he has touched.

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger - entering hospice (July, 2009)
From: Mzee Simba
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 06:03 PM

How deeply and profoundly saddening. I saw him perform a couple of times, and he was so generous with his time in both pre- and post-concert conversation with audience members. A great, great man, and a giant of a "folk" musician. Would that there might have been more like him...the world would be a better place.

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger - entering hospice (July, 2009)
From: Arkie
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 06:41 PM

Mike has brought pleasure and enlightenment into my life for 50 years. I had the good fortune to see him perform up close while in graduate school and he was gracious enough to come to Mountain View to help with several events during my time at the Ozark Folk Center. I have to admit the first time it helped that it gave him an excuse to visit with Almeda Riddle who lived nearby. I enjoyed seeing the two of them together and observing their friendship and mutual respect. Mike's impact on traditional music has been enormous as a performer, scholar, record producer, as well as many less obvious ways. It is sad to see someone like Mike drawing to the end of their life, but one cannot help but reflect on how well he has lived that life, the wonderful impact he has made, and the great legacy he leaves.

Elliott

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger - entering hospice (July, 2009)
From: GUEST,BanjoRay
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 07:12 PM

I've loved Mike and his music since I first heard him in 1963. He radically changed the rest of my life for the better. I wish him and his family everything they wish themselves.

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger - entering hospice (July, 2009)
From: stallion
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 08:15 PM

oh my dear fellow, peace be with you all

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger - entering hospice (July, 2009)
From: catspaw49
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 08:19 PM

Bob Coltman said it right and I can think of nothing more......

Spaw

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger - entering hospice (July, 2009)
From: GUEST,Bill Hudson
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 08:40 PM

I am sorry to hear the news...but I do agree and understand about hospice. I lost such a good friend from cancer and I cannot say enough about hospice. If one is to leave this world that is the way to go. Surrounded by caring and loving folks.
See you on the other side Mike where I hope we can be pickin'
Still Pickin'
Bill

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger - entering hospice (July, 2009)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 08:59 PM

Amos, I found that the link worked okay, but it had to get past my security software first.

Thanks for posting that, Bill.

Wishing him peace and comfort,

SRS

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger - entering hospice (July, 2009)
From: Padre
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 10:09 PM

I first heard Mike with the NLCR at Antioch College in 1962 - their performance absolutely blew me away after the bland folk-pap that was the usual fare at college concerts during that time. His vocal and instrumental prowess, his genuine love for old-time music, and his respect for the performers of that music made a profound impression on me that has lasted 45+ years. May his remaining time with us be filled with the knowledge that he has entertained, educated, and influenced many of those who write in this forum. Thank you, Mike.

Padre

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger - entering hospice (July, 2009)
From: katlaughing
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 10:29 PM

What Bob Coltman said, from me, too.

That and my condolences to TJ in San Diego on the loss of your brother.

Thank you, Mr. Seeger. What a grand mix they will have when he meets Sandy and Rick and others.

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger - entering hospice (July, 2009)
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 10:59 PM

Just got a message from the Berkeley Old Time Music Convention, forwarding a message from Alexia:

Dear friends--for the past week Mike has been in the hospital getting
treatment for an unusually aggressive plasmacytoma (a cancer). We're
uncertain of the future, but we'll be home soon, a blessedly welcome
prospect. You can send Mike a message by email to alexia AT rockbridge.net or
by mail to PO Box 1592, Lexington, VA 24450. Email's quick, mail nice to
have in hand, either one very welcome and helpful. With warmest
thanks-------Alexia

PS Please forward to others who care.

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger - entering hospice (July, 2009)
From: Charlie Baum
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 11:04 PM

When I think of Mike Seeger, I think not only of the musician (though he was a consummate performer) but of the person who introduced me to the music and musicians of America. I think of Clarence Ferrill and the many others whose performances and essences were captured by Mike's Nagra recorder, and Mike's extensive notes that helped me learn who these people were, since their music had spoken to my soul as it did to his. He was such a good performer that he could divert attention away from himself and directly to the song and its sources.

I'll always remember the vocal week at Augusta back in 1984, where he taught me how to listen. Listen to the timbre. Listen to the bends. Listen to the attacks. Listen to the releases. Listen to the decays. Listen to the dynamics. Listen to what's said and what's unsaid. And if you can, watch the performer. Watch their posture. Watch their eyes, or lack of eye-contact. Watch their fingers. Note every detail, and then don't get so caught up in the details that you lose track of the big picture, because that's also where the soul of the music lies.

May the experiences of his next phase of his life bring him, and us as well, appreciation of the details of his life, and the wonder of the soul.

--Charlie Baum

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger - entering hospice (July, 2009)
From: KT
Date: 30 Jul 09 - 01:18 AM

Charlie, that's beautifully put.

Bill, thanks for posting the link. I'm enjoying it very much and holding Mike in thought and prayer as I watch and listen~ May the joy and love he's shared with his music, return to him now, tenfold, to ease this time for him.

Each time we lose another or share the burden of another sorrow, I'm so touched by this amazing community that is MUDCAT. You are all so wonderful.

KT

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger - entering hospice (July, 2009)
From: Will Fly
Date: 30 Jul 09 - 02:14 AM

One of the sadnesses of growing old is that, one by one - if we ourselves survive - our friends and heroes leave us. I never saw Mike Seeger but the NLCR were a great influence on, and joy to me when I was a young man and they were young men.

I hope Mike goes to his rest peacefully and without pain. The music lives on.

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger - entering hospice (July, 2009)
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 30 Jul 09 - 05:45 AM

I remember seeing Mike at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall back in the 60s. I went back stage after the performance hoping for a chat with him, and when I found the dressing-room Mike was already talking to a chap who was asking Mike's advice about playing the banjo. The guy was a bit of an idiot but Mike was friendly and very patient with him. Musically, I love everything Mike stands for.

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger - entering hospice (July, 2009)
From: ard mhacha
Date: 30 Jul 09 - 06:12 AM

A true legend heartbreaking news.

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger - entering hospice (July, 2009)
From: John Minear
Date: 30 Jul 09 - 07:11 AM

One of the great joys of moving to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia eleven years ago was to discover that Mike Seeger was our over-the-mountain neighbor, and that we could hear him in person at the Prism coffeehouse in Charlottesville every January. The Prism is no more and now Mike is sick. This feels very close by and our hearts go over the mountain to Mike and to Alexia. May you find peace in your valley.

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger - entering hospice (July, 2009)
From: john f weldon
Date: 30 Jul 09 - 07:21 AM

...the first time, with NLCR at McGill in the early 60s...
...solo at the Fifth Dimension, later 60s...
...many times at Champlain Valley, expecially an NLCR reunion not long ago...
...my then small son getting some music lessons from him, while he sat around between sets...
...doing an entire set with a tiny bag full of home-made rattles & stuff...

Great memories.
He was a fabulous performer, musician, and an amiable, witty, knowledgeable guy. One of my favourites for the last 50 (!!) years.

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger - entering hospice (July, 2009)
From: Rex
Date: 30 Jul 09 - 03:28 PM

Oh I would hope we'd have Mike around for many more years. His was a bright light into the murky past of old-time music. Especially the fiddle and the banjo! Again, grateful for his work.

Rex

Subject: Mike Seeger Info
From: Vixen
Date: 30 Jul 09 - 03:34 PM

A friend just forwarded this to me...
more sad news.


Date: Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:15:28 -0400
From: Ken Irwin
Rounder Records
Subject: Mike Seeger Update

This is being passed along for Mary Katherine Adlin
from Folklore Productions
who has been booking Mike Seeger for years.

============ ======

Many folks in the bluegrass world know, or know of, Mike Seeger.
But you may not know that Mike has been undergoing treatment
for leukemia for several years; just recently he was diagnosed
with a new and very aggressive form of cancer,
called multiple myeloma. In the same forthright way
that he has lived his life, he has now made the decision
to discontinue treatment and enter hospice care.
His wife Alexia says that he would enjoy hearing
from friends via cards and emails
which can be sent care of his booking agency:

Folklore Productions
1671 Appian Way
Santa Monica, CA 90401

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger - entering hospice (July, 2009)
From: GUEST,elfpix
Date: 30 Jul 09 - 05:51 PM

Damn.

Unwittingly Mike did me a great favor once.

He is a very beautiful spirit and we will be much the poorer for his departure. May it be painless and graceful.

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger - entering hospice (July, 2009)
From: Art Thieme
Date: 30 Jul 09 - 06:02 PM

How terribly sad. But   I am sure Mike will live out the rest of his life, to the extent that he is able, as musically as he has always lived it.

After being introduced to old time music by seeing Mike and Tom and John at the Gate Of Horn folk night-spot in Chicago--circa 1959--(opening the show for Bob Gibson) I saw the three of them, and Later with Tracy Schwarz, continue over the next 50 years, by their grand musical example, to be the absolutely most important factor in the phenomenal popularity of this musical genre. After seeing these guys, the world literally saw they could do it too!!! ;-) The world took up old time styles of playing fiddles, banjos, guitars, autoharps, Dobro-like things---hell, all of it---just because Mike Seeger and cohorts showed us the way. (Even that Spiveys Corners-Len Emanual folk-yelling stuff!!)

There would not be anything like the modern various old-timey dancing scenes (and concerts too) if not for Mike and the New Lost City Ramblers.

Mike, for all of it, THANKS so very much! Please, be as proud as you can be now---because you are responsible, in a huge way, for the on-going survival of this music. For me, it's been a real privilege to see (and hear) it happen!

Personally, I'll never forget the night, on my old FLEA MARKET radio show on NPR, that you, amazingly, actually forgot the words to Libba's song "Freight Train" -- and I had to sneak over from hosting the show to whisper to you the start of the next verse. I treasure that memory---and so many others. --- All of those early University Of Chicago Folk Festivals where you, Tom and John were the glue that made the workshops all work because you knew the right things to ask the informant performers like Tom Ashley, Roscoe Holcomb, Dock Boggs -- everyone.

For us kids, in 1961 (I was 20 then) and onward, it truly was an education.

It feels so damn good to be able tell you this.

Sir, be as well as you can be -- for as long as it's possible.

Art Thieme
Peru, Illinois (Where our governors make our license plates.)

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger - entering hospice (July, 2009)
From: GUEST,iancarterb
Date: 30 Jul 09 - 11:55 PM

My only direct meeting with Mike was in an autoharp workshop at the Black Point Festival in 1978, and he was gracious and instructive, telling me with a smile and absolutely no put-down that I was playing "hot licks." I've tried, with some success I hope, to play more sensible accompaniments on whatever instrument ever since:). The NLCRs have been a benchmark for me since about 1959, and I wish Mike a peaceful immediate future and send my gratitude for a life well lived and for music joyfully sent out to us all.
Carter

Subject: RE: Mike Seeger - entering hospice (July, 2009)
From: GUEST,Jean
Date: 31 Jul 09 - 12:26 AM

I saw Mike at the Champlain Valley Folk Festival years ago. Tomorrow, I will be at Champlain Valley, thinking of Mike and his family. Thank you, Mike.