Bring Me Home : the third and final volume of my "Home Trilogy". 12 beloved traditional U.S.A. folk songs, 9 of which I've never recorded. 3 have been re-recorded a la 2007 - quite different from earlier renditions!

The final (title) track is a new composition, a heartfelt thanks to my 3 families: the one that made me, the one I made with Ewan MacColl and the one I have now with Irene. My sons Calum and Neill sing and play with me and my daughter Kitty does the graphics.

You, my fourth family: listen and sing along.

The Long Harvest 10 CD set plus 1 CD of notes. Singers: Peggy Seeger (USA) and Ewan MacColl (UK). Each of 10 CDs features three or four traditional ballads, most of which are included in the definitive English and Scottish Ballads, the legendary volumes compiled by Francis J. Child. Each of these ballads is represented by three or four versions, taking the ballad from its older form through various transitions to newer forms. For instance: Lord Randal (Child #12) starts out as a grand old narrative, moves to an English pub version and thence to Billy Boy. The 'Two Sisters' (Child #10) begins as a stately Scots ballad and moves to a North American play party song and thence to a children's chant. Extensive notes are to be on the 11th CD, in PDF format.

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Selected as the top CD for Women's Month out of 32 by Kevin Elliot of WEFT folk, country, bluegrass, etc.
WEFT-90.1FM
Champaign, IL

Appleseed Writes:
On May 29, 2005, Peggy's family, friends and fans flocked to London's Queen Elizabeth Hall to celebrate her 70th birthday - a few weeks early. The live 2-CD "Three Score and Ten" captures this historic evening of performances by Peggy and other members of some of the U.S. and U.K.'s foremost folk families - her brothers Mike and Pete Seeger (including the first ever recording of the three Seegers together!); British traditional music giants Martin Carthy, wife Norma Waterson, and daughter Eliza Carthy; Peggy's three children (Neill, Calum and Kitty) and longtime partner Irene Pyper-Scott; and contemporary folksinger/activist Billy Bragg, an ideological descendant of the Seeger/MacColl tradition. Graham Henderson and James McNally provide instrumental support. Features new and old songs, including "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face," "Gonna Be an Engineer," and solo performances by Pete and Mike.

Peggy Writes:
I had a ball! Loved every moment! Thank you to everyone! Let's do it again!

Crazy Quilt - Timely Series #4

The latest of the Timely Series, this collection covers everything from recycling to mature laughter to shadow prisoners to lovers.

Click for list of songs and other Timely CDs.

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Blood & Roses 5 CD Set (Re-issued 2006 CAMSCO Music)

Traditional Ballads from England, Scotland and the USA sung by Peggy Seeger and Ewan MacColl. Copyright 1979 Blackthorne Records.

Love Call Me Home (Appleseed APRCD 1087)

Volume #2 of the Home Trilogy, it consists of 10 traditional USA songs and two of Peggy's recent compositions, 'Sing About these Hard Times' and her much-requested requiem for her friend Christine Lassiter, 'Love Call Me Home'. Songs include 'Poor Ellen Smith', 'Hangman', 'Rynerdine', 'Careless Love' (in 3/4!), 'Bad, Bad Girl' ... and more. With superb instrumentation by her two sons Neill and Calum, with her daughter Kitty joining the family on vocals. The cover is in keeping with Volume #1, Heading for Home and Volume #3 of the Trilogy is already in the pipeline.

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Album Notes, Tunings, Song Histories and Lyrics


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Heading for Home - (Appleseed APR-CD-1076 in the USA and Fellside FECD 181 in the UK)

This album began its life with the title 'Balancing Act'. Things have changed. This is a new CD of old songs, Peggy's first recording in over 25 years of traditional USA songs. Her singing is spectacular, the accompaniments suitably simple. Lots of banjo playing. All recorded in 2002, there are 12 folksongs and one song (the title track) of her own composition -this album is a collector's item, set to become a classic. Peggy's children and her partner join her in what is the first of three CDs, the whole set to be called the Home Triology. Part 2 will come out in 2004 and part 3 in 2005.

The Essential Ewan MacColl Songbook, sixty years of songmaking (OK 64986 $29.95) The first ever comprehensive collection of this legendary songwriter's work, an enormous tome containing 200 of this British songmaster's best songs ("The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face," "Dirty Old Town," "Manchester Rambler," "Shoals of Herring," "Sweet Thames Flow Softly," "Freeborn Man" and many others, some of which have been neither published nor recorded). Ewan MacColl played a vital role in the “folk song revival” in Britain. This unique collection is filled with several hundred photographs, notes, and quotes, plus a biography, a discography and Peggy's personal tribute to him. Over 400 pages. 9" x 12", paperback.

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The Peggy Seeger Songbook, Warts and All - (OK 64985 $29.95) This volume is part songbook, part autobiography, and part social and political history. The presentation of the 149 songs included here paints a vibrant portrait of an outspoken artist/advocate and her musical, personal, and political development. Seeger shares not only the stories behind the songs, but the situations in her life - and in the world around her - that prompted their creation. In doing so, she gives us insights into the inner workings of her song-making process as well as contributing to our understanding of the important issues addressed by many of the lyrics. Her best known songs, "Come Fill Up Your Glasses," "Gonna Be an Engineer" and "The Ballad of Springhill" have, among others, become classics. This songbook, sprinkled throughout with drawings by Jacky Fleming, is also just that: a classic.

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An Odd Collection - (cassette and CD, ROUN 4031) An intriguing selection, written by Peggy. Songs about love, loss, violence against women, hormones, housework, unions, farting, abortion, ecology, old friends, weddings, nuclear pollution, bodily dimensions and the female vote. Quite unlike any of Peggy's previous solo albums. "The muse who inspired Ewan MacColl's 'First Time Ever I Saw Your Face' has produced a body of work that is unparalleled in its vehemence and remains a fountain of inspiration in a sea of bogus political correctiveness . . . An Odd Collection delivers an abundance of themes, ranging from a tribute to folklorist Ralph Rinzler to wife-battering. Easy listening this is not, but if difficult it is difficult only in a stirring sense." (Ken Hunt, QMagazine, London)

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Almost Commercially Viable - Peggy loves this album of love songs (lots) and political songs (a few). It is easy listening, with accompaniments by her sons and many other excellent musicians. Peggy is joined by singer Irene Pyper-Scott, who produced the album and helped write some of the songs. (Note: three of the songs are by other people and the CD has two more songs than the cassette, which is why the cassette is going cheaply.) Previously available only from Peggy (Golden Egg issue, cassette [prefixed Grade 1] and CD [prefixed Grade 2], it was released in England by Fellside Records on FECD 130 in the spring of 1998. It has been reissued in the United States in 2000 by Sliced Bread (SB71204)

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Parsley Sage and Politics - Parsley, Sage and Politics is a nine-part radio series on the lives and art of Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger. The series explores the breadth of experience and creation of Seeger and MacColl through excerpts from in-depth interviews with Peggy, Mike and Pete Seeger, Ewan MacColl, Alan Lomax, Studs Terkel and others, combined with the music of Seeger and MacColl, which is the focus throughout. Its makers, Mary Orr and Michael O'Rourke, used radio ballad techniques to create a unique informative sound tapestry.

Available now as a set of 3 CDs! (A few cassette versions still available.) Order

This acclaimed collection, a favorite for years, has been repackaged on two compact discs (or two cassettes), for a total of more than two hours of music. Mike and Peggy Seeger sing 94 songs from their mother Ruth Crawford Seeger's famous book, American Folk Songs for Children (Doubleday). The Seegers are featured on a wide variety of instruments including dulcimer, mandolin, guitar, banjo, pan pipes, Jew's harp, concertina and fiddle; they also sing some numbers without any accompaniment at all. This album has been the cornerstone of Rounder's Children's Series since its release. (2 CD or 2 Cassette set.)
Click here to order from Rounder Records. $22.99

This set is based on the famous Ruth Crawford Seeger book of the same name (Shoe String Press). Among the 53 (!) songs are "Bright Morning Stars Are Rising," "Look Away to Bethlehem," "Go Tell It on the Mountain," "Sing Hallelu," and "Breaking Up Christmas." Mike Seeger, Penny Seeger, Peggy Seeger, Sonya Cohen, Calum MacColl, Ewan MacColl, Kitty MacColl and Kim Seeger accompany their own vocals on traditional acoustic instruments. Liner notes explain the traditions behind these lesser-known Christmas songs, and the cover is decorated with wonderful woodcuts. (2 CD or 2 Cassette set.) 1998 Best Seasonal Recording: NAIRD (National Association of Independent Record Distributors) Indie
Click here to order from Rounder Records. $24.99

Composer and educator Ruth Crawford Seeger raised her children on many of these songs, most of which she gathered and arranged for her book of the same name (Linnet Books, Shoe String Press). These recordings contain all 43 songs from the book plus another 15, sung and played by her four children and six of her grandchildren in tradition-based styles on banjo, guitar, piano, fiddle, tin whistle, ukulele, mandolin, Jew's harp, lap dulcimer, quills, and other acoustic instruments. (2 CD or 2 Cassette set.) 1993 Notable Children's Recording: American Library Association
Click here to order from Rounder Records. $22.99