'Strangers and Cousins' Pete Seeger lp

Subject: RE: 'Strangers and Cousins' Pete Seeger lp
From: Joe Offer
Date: 07 Aug 20 - 07:20 PM

Hi, Felipa -

Allmusic.com has a nice review of the 1965 Strangers and Cousins LP from Columbia:

Strangers and Cousins is Pete Seeger's sixth album released by Columbia Records, and it is his sixth consecutive live album for the label. Like its predecessor, and unlike the four LPs that came before them, it has been assembled from multiple sources, not a single concert. "Songs From His World Tour," reads a legend on the front cover, and on the back Seeger reveals that Columbia wanted to call the disc Pete Seeger: An International Tour. Seeger took his family on a round-the-world trip from August 1963 to June 1964, visiting 24 countries and performing frequently, although it was not a concert tour, per se, and there are recordings here taken from the trip -- "Sourwood Mountain" finds Seeger in India, demonstrating the sound of the banjo to sitar player Imrat Khan, while the cover of Bob Dylan's "Masters of War" is from Japan, where each line is followed by a translator's rendering of the words in Japanese. For the most part, however, these are recordings made by Seeger after he returned, the songs coming from various places (and not necessarily collected on this trip), including Scotland (Matt McGinn's humorous "Manura Manyah"), the Soviet Union ("May There Always Be Sunshine"), Eastern Africa ("Malaika"), Germany ("Peat Bog Soldiers," a song from a World War II concentration camp), India ("Ragaputi"), Ireland ("Kevin Barry"), and Poland ("Shtille Di Nacht," another World War II era song). Seeger's own compositions are consistent with the international theme, starting with the leadoff track, "Oh, Had I a Golden Thread," about the "rainbow design" the singer would weave to bring the world together, continuing with "All Mixed Up," about the racial intermingling of all peoples, and concluding on a massive singalong of his hit "If I Had a Hammer," which he reclaims from the "rock ‘n' roller" (he means Trini Lopez) who took it around the world. On this musical trip, thus, Seeger makes many of his usual stops, promoting international understanding and deploring war in its many varieties, and getting his audiences to sing with him.

This track listing is from discogs.com:

Pete Seeger ?– Strangers And Cousins
Label: Columbia ?– CL 2334
Format: Vinyl, LP, Mono
Country: US
Released: 1965
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Folk

Tracklist
A1        Oh, Had I A Golden Thread        
A2        Manura Manyah        
A3        May There Always Be Sunshine        
A4        Malaika        
A5        Peat Bog Soldiers        
A6        Ragaputi        
A7        Sourwood Mountain        
B1        All Mixed Up        
B2        Kevin Barry        
B3        Shtille Di Nacht        
B4        Masters Of War        
B5        Talking Atom Blues        
B6        Uh, Uh, Uh        
B7        If I Had A Hammer

Pete and Toshi had two sons and two daughters, so I suppose it's possible that one of the daughters is depicted on the album cover. Couldn't find anything about that.

Subject: 'Strangers and Cousins' Pete Seeger lp
From: Felipa
Date: 07 Aug 20 - 10:15 AM

I remember hearing that the picture of two girls, similar looking but one blond-haired and one black-haired Japanese, on the album cover of "strangers and cousins" were real cousins and that one was Pete Seeger's own daughter. Can anyone verify this information, or say what story you read or heard about the illustration? I know of course, that Pete's wife Toshi was half Japanese.

I sent a Japanese friend a link to a recording of Pete Seeger singing in Japanese. He was singing a Japanese song about Hiroshima, and Junko said he sang it very well. She found some Japanese recordings for me but said that she herself preferred Pete's version.