TOM PAXTON RECEIVES GRAMMY LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD & PETE SEEGER WINS “BEST TRADITIONAL FOLK ALBUM” GRAMMY
The weekend of February 7, 2009, was a memorable one for Appleseed and its artists.
 On Friday, February 7, the February 19 issue of Rolling Stone carried a two-page spread devoted to Pete Seeger and Joan Baez, as well as several candid shots of Pete at the pre-inaugural “We Are One” concert at the Lincoln Memorial.
On Saturday, Appleseed artist Tom Paxton was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts & Science (NARAS), which bestows the Grammys. The award honors creative contributions of outstanding artist significance to the field of recording.
And on Sunday, during pre-TV-broadcast ceremonies, Pete Seeger received a “Best Traditional Folk Album” Grammy for his late-September release on Appleseed, At 89.
Appleseed CDs have previously been nominated for ten Grammys, and this was our first award.
 Paxton, who could not attend the Grammy events in Los Angeles, had responded to the announcement of his award in December ’08: “This was totally unexpected, out-of-the-blue and undreamt of. The Brits have an expression for how I felt when I learned of it: ‘gobsmacked.’ But very, very grateful.” One of his daughters was on hand at the Grammys to accept Tom’s award.
Paxton is the second Appleseed artist to receive Grammy’s Lifetime Achievement Award; Pete Seeger was previously honored in 1993.
Seeger’s “Best Traditional Folk Album” award for what he’s called his final album, At 89, was his third Grammy nomination and second win. His 1996 CD, Pete, was a winner in the same category, and the 2003 2-CD set by Pete Seeger & Friends, Seeds: The Songs of Pete Seeger, Volume 3, on Appleseed was a nominee in the “traditional folk” category as well.
The typically self-effacing Seeger rereacted characteristically to the news that his CD had beaten out Appleseed releases by his half-sister Peggy Seeger for her Bring Me Home CD and Tom Paxton’s Comedians & Angels, as well as nominated albums by Kathy Mattea and Rosalie Sorrels.
“Oh no, good gosh," he told the Times Herald-Record in Middletown, NY.He felt that the other nominees deserved to win. “I feel like apologizing to three very good friends -- my younger sister, Peggy; Tom Paxton, I knew him as a college student when he first started making up songs; and Rosalie Sorrels," he told another reporter. He theorized that his Grammy was "the reward for longevity." Although Pete remained at home in Beacon, NY, he sent a message to NARAS through longtime friend and Appleseed president Jim Musselman, who accepted the award on Pete’s behalf, which said, in part, "Keep singing songs of hope and social justice. Music can change the world and non-violence can change the world!”
Although Seeger had conjectured in recent months that "At 89" might be his final album, he started having second thoughts even before the Grammys. "I thought it would be," he told the Daily Freeman in Kingston, NY. Now I'm thinking of something else," said Seeger."You never can tell."
Singer-songwriter Paxton, who has been creating topical, satirical, and heartfelt music for adults and children throughout his 45 year career, adds this honor to previous Lifetime Achievement Awards presented to him by the North American Folk Music and Dance Alliance in 2006 and by BBC’s Radio 2 in 2005.
Tom’s Grammy nomination for Comedians & Angels was his third; his 2001 Your Shoes, My Shoes release was a finalist in the “Best Children’s Music Album” category, and his first CD for Appleseed, 2002’s Looking for the Moon, was nominated as “Best Contemporary Folk Album.”
The Grammy nomination for Peggy Seeger’s Bring Me Home CD was the first in her illustrious career as a songwriter and interpreter of traditional American and British folk music. She also served as the inspiration for her late husband Ewan MacColl’s “First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” which was Grammy’s “Record of the Year” in 1972 in a version recorded by Roberta Flack.
“We are proud to have three nominations, a true honor and testament to the label and the fine musicians we have the privilege to work with,” said Appleseed’s Jim Musselman. “I feel the music we release has an importance both historically and keeping the wonderful tradition of folk music alive. It is also wonderful to have the recognition for well known artists like Pete Seeger and Tom Paxton,” Musselman continues. “It is an honor to work with all these musical legends. And I am so glad to see the recognition of Peggy Seeger, whose music has been so influential to so many well known artists over the years. Many times we take artists for granted and do not recognize them until they are gone. I am glad to see Peggy recognized while she is alive.”
Seeger Season Continues
Not that he ever rests on his laurels, but Pete Seeger has been particularly ubiquitous in recent months. Prior to receiving a Grammy Award for “Best Traditional Folk Album” (At 89), Seeger and Bruce Springsteen energized the massive crowd on hand and at home viewing the pre-inaugural “We Are One” concert at the Lincoln Memorial on January 18 with their singalong rendition of Woody Guthrie’ “This Land is Your Land,” reinstating several less idyllic, seldom-sung verses facing down the darker side of the American Dream. One of our great national anthems has been restored.
Photos of Seeger at the concert and meeting President-elect Obama were published in the February 19 issue of Rolling Stone, as was a striking two-page photo spread and feature on Pete and Joan Baez.
In the months surrounding the September 30 release of Pete’s newly recorded At 89 CD, Pete was moving in high gear, playing events – mostly benefits – ranging from New England Farm Relief Fund shows in Lebanon, New Hampshire and Brattleboro, Vermont, to funds micro-loans for small family farms to the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens’ annual Chile Pepper Fiesta in late September.
Celebrating the release of At 89, his subsequent Grammy winner, Pete performed “Take It from Dr. King,” his tribute to the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., on CBS-TV’s “Late Night with David Letterman” show on Monday, September 29. The song, written in 2001, appears on Appleseed’s 2003 2-CD set, Seeds: The Songs of Pete Seeger, Volume 3, a finalist for that year’s Grammy as “Best Traditional Folk Album.” Here's a link to Pete’s performance on the Letterman show.
New Appleseed Releases (Winter/Spring 2009)
We thought 2008 ended well when three of our releases for the year were nominated for the “Best Traditional Folk Album” Grammy and Tom Paxton was given a Lifetime Achievement Grammy (see first news item). When Pete Seeger won the “Traditional Folk” Grammy a few months shy of his 90th birthday, that was icing on the cake.
We’ve started off 2009 with new releases from an old friend and a new one that should please all discerning listeners: In January, we issued Let the Circle be Wide, a new CD by one of Appleseed’s earliest artists, the great Irish singer, songwriter and peace activist Tommy Sands. Accompanied by his daughter Moya, son Fionan, three other members of the famed Sands Family and a cast of much-respected supporting musicians, Tommy performs 15 mostly original songs steeped in Irish and Celtic culture that sometimes address unresolved issues of peace and cooperation amongst all people. Without sermons or diatribes, the songs are filled with contemporary observations, tall tales, celebrations of life, and tributes to bygone heroes. There’s also a unique “translation/ transcreation” of the most famous Irish ballad of all, “Danny Boy” (here retitled “Young Man’s Dream”), that originated more than 500 years ago, drawing us to “an island dreaming where the heart is free,” where “the dream of love, it belongs to all.” Sarajevo/Belfast, Tommy’s 1999 collaboration with fellow peace activist Vedran Smailovic, “the cellist of Bosnia,” was among our first dozen releases. New to our label but long revered by folk, folk-rock and folk-blues fans is Tom Rush, whose What I Know CD in February marked his first studio recordings in 35 years. Tom is equally acclaimed for his “golden ear” – he was among the very first to record songs by Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, and James Taylor back in 1968 – and his warm, empathetic vocals, which make every song he sings his own. And some of them are – there are five Rush originals on What I Know, as well as compositions by well-known and more obscure singer-songwriters including Eliza Gilkyson, Mentor William, Jack Tempchin, Steven Bruton, A.J. Swearingen, and Richard Dean, among others. Critics are already celebrating Tom’s new CD: the Boston Herald called it “a warm, crisp gem”; the Los Angeles Times proclaimed “you'd never guess that he'd been away so long, from the lithe spirit in his voice,” and the Hartford Courant labeled the disc “wonderful.” In April we’re releasing another “comeback” studio CD, Love Filling Station, Jesse Winchester’s first in a decade. While Tom Rush is best known for his versions of other songwriters’ material, Winchester’s music is most familiar through recordings by others. His songs have been country, pop, and even R&B hits and album highlights when recorded by Wynonna Judd, Jimmy Buffett, Elvis Costello, Joan Baez, the Weather Girls, and dozens more. But to update an old slogan, nobody sings Jesse Winchester songs like Jesse Winchester. His light, tenor southern drawl and low-key phrasing bring out the heart of Love Filling Station’s nine original songs of rollercoaster romances and small-town situations. Like Tom Rush, Jesse also has exquisite taste in cover tunes, with his soulful version of Ben E. King’s classic “Stand By Me” an ethereal stand-out. What’s coming out on Appleseed after Jesse’s CD? Revisit this space regularly for updates. Just as a reminder, here were some of our outstanding releases of 2008: Pete Seeger's Grammy-winning At 89 is a moving and gently urgent summary of Pete’s life’s work to date (he’ll be 90 next May). The CD contains 32 new tracks, only six of which he’s previously recorded in different arrangements on older albums. Recent Seeger originals, collaborations and in-concert favorites have been sequenced into thematic suites here, linked by Pete’s spoken introductions and a series of alternately delightful and poignant solo instrumentals. One of the fathers of the modern folk movement that started in the late 1940s and a tireless activist on behalf of civil rights, the environment, peace, and international social justice, Pete uses his music both for entertainment and to inspire personal involvement in his listeners. * * * Al Stewart’s latest CD, Sparks of Ancient Light, will take you on a tour of exotic locations, eras and adventures in twelve new original songs. As displayed on his previous Appleseed disc, A Beach Full of Shells (2005), and his lengthy back catalogue, the great singer-songwriter is a master of interweaving history and mystery in these musical “short stories,” singing of explorers, politicians, athletes, con-men, lovers, would-be revolutionaries . . . and Elvis Presley, too! Sparks of Ancient Light is a model Al Stewart album – the music is informed by folk, folk-rock, jazz, classical influences, the lyrics are erudite and intriguing, and the scenarios they present are unforgettable.
* * * As Appleseed continues to expand its roster of artists, we were delighted to welcome the award-winning songwriter, solo artist, producer, sideman and multi-instrumentalist Darrell Scott to our label. Darrell penned the 2007 Americana Song of the Year (“Hank Williams’ Ghost”), and was named Songwriter of the Year by ASCAP in 2002 and by the Nashville Songwriters Association International the previous year. More than 75 artists, including the Dixie Chicks, Garth Brooks, and Guy Clark, have covered his compositions, riding several of them into the Top 5 country singles charts. Darrell made his Appleseed debut in late July with Modern Hymns, his seventh CD overall. His new CD showcases “songs and artists/songwriters whose music shook me as a kid (with ears nearly as big as my heart). They guided the way to my own path as a singer-songwriter . . . These songs speak to the human condition . . . in all of our aching and beautiful glory . . . These songs are the truth . . .” Musical guests include Alison Krauss and Mary Gauthier (both adding vocals to Leonard Cohen’s “Joan of Arc”), bluegrass greats Del McCoury, Tim O’Brien, Sam Bush, and many more. * * *
Joining the Appleseed roster for their second CD was Angel Band, a delightful trio of female vocalists who blend country, bluegrass, folk, gospel and blues music, distinctive solo voices, three-part harmonies, and predominantly original songs into a sound they describe as “boisterous, sad, sweet, goofy, glorious and angelic.” The band has spent much of the last year on tour with David Bromberg, whose wife, Nancy Josephson, is the senior member of the group and produced David’s Grammy-nominated CD, Try Me One More Time. Veteran Nashville musician and producer Lloyd Maines, father of the Dixie Chicks’ Natalie Maines, handled production on Angel Band’s With Roots & Wings. As onstage, the Angels are supported on this CD by backing band “Chum,” featuring David Bromberg on various guitars, mandolinist/songwriter Bobby Tangrea, and other accomplished pickers. The CD contains a dozen Angel Band originals and a cover of Chip Taylor’s “Angel of the Morning,” previously a hit in separate decades for singers Merilee Rush and Juice Newton. * * *
The solo acoustic folk-blues that earned David Bromberg a Grammy nomination for 2007’s Try Me One More Time are only a few of the strings in Bromberg’s musical bow. In July, Appleseed released Live New York City 1982, which captures Bromberg and his three stellar David Bromberg Quartet members in rip-roaring bluegrass mode on a repertoire spanning Bob Wills and Bob Dylan. There are exhilarating high-speed improvisations and arrangements on guitar, fiddle, and mandolin, underpinned by a bass guitar and topped by the requisite high, lonesome multi-part harmonies, with a palpable sense of joy among the performers that is beamed back at them by the wildly appreciative audience. This recording, previously available as a limited edition merch-table and website release for the last few years, has been remastered from the original two-track tape, which allowed for no post-concert overdubs or studio trickery.
Sweet Honey in the Rock Celebrates Black History Month in the White House
The world-famous female a cappella ensemble, Sweet Honey in the Rock, no stranger to acclaim for its music and activist spirit, celebrated African American History Month on February 18 with a performance in the East Wing of the White House before an audience of 180 grammar school children. At the first public event for children held at the White House since President Barack Obama’s election, First Lady Michelle Obama hosted sixth- and seventh-graders from three local Washington schools, plus First Daughters Sasha and Malia and other children of White House staffers. After Mrs. Obama gave the children a short lesson in black history, she first spotlighted the White House’s Director of the Executive Residence and Chief Usher, Rear Admiral Stephen W. Rochon, the first African American to hold that post. Mrs. Obama then introduced Sweet Honey in the Rock as “national treasures . . . one of my favorite groups in the whole wide world. . . . Sweet Honey in the Rock has continued the African American tradition of using music and song to advance freedom and social justice. So will you guys now help me welcome them?” The sextet performed a set of songs drawn heavily from their most recent CD, the Grammy-nominated release Experience . . . 101,” issued by Appleseed in 2007. Here are some photos of Sweet Honey’s White House performance. . . 
You can follow this link to a video of First Lady Michelle Obama’s remarks to the children assembled for the Black History Month celebration.
Two Awards for Sweet Honey’s Experience . . . 101 CD
Adding to various honors including their White House performance in February, Grammy nominations and awards, and with a lengthy history of singing the right things at the right time, Sweet Honey in the Rock recently received two more honors. Their family-oriented Experience . . . 101, a Grammy finalist in 2007 in the “Best Musical Recording for Children” category, has received recognition from a pair of organizations devoted to quality in children’s media and products. The CD was recently awarded a Gold Award in the "Music, Ages 9 & Up" category by the National Parenting Publications Awards (NAPPA), administered by Dominion Parenting Media, a division of Dominion Enterprises, and promoted in association with parenting publications across the United States. Sweet Honey already has a NAPPA Honors Award in its trophy case for its Still the Same Me CD, released in 2000. Dominion Parenting Media is represented online by www.Parenthood.com, which offers a vast inventory of award-winning editorial content covering a wide range of pregnancy and parenting related topics. Experience also bagged a Silver Honor awarded by the Parents’ Choice Foundation, the nation's oldest nonprofit program created to recognize quality children's media. The Parents’ Choice Awards are designed to help parents and caregivers make informed decisions about which new products are right for their children. Experience was a winner in the “Music for 5-to-14” category, and was described by the Foundation member Debbie Cavalier, the Dean of Continuing Education at Berklee College of Music as a “masterful collection of original songs . . . The songs are infectious, the arrangements are fun, inventive, and full of musical surprises. The harmonies are inventive and tight, and the messages are universal. The lyrics offer a fresh perspective and a sense of hope and purpose for young adults who want to know about their place in the world. Sweet Honey in the Rock has created a musically rich production that will serve as an educational pillar for generations.” For more information on the Parents’ Choice Foundation, visit their website: www.parents-choice.org. The delightfully buoyant and positive Experience is intended to help teach youngsters some of life’s basic lessons in 18 exuberant songs. The joyful sound of six magically interwoven voices and upbeat advice – utilizing folk, gospel, jazz, blues and even rap styles – will appeal to children and parents alike. The group’s members perform original compositions about peaceful coexistence, the virtues of education, the nurturing support and reassurance of parents and elders, following one’s moral and spiritual compass, and working to better the surrounding world. Emphasizing the group’s roots in African culture, the songs are matched up in print to Adinkra symbols used in Ghana, West Africa, to indicate wisdom, strength, unity, good fortune, harmony and other emotions crucial to leading a meaningful life. We congratulate Sweet Honey in the Rock on these latest laurels.
Appleseed Artists on the Airwaves!
Jesse Winchester and his new CD, Love Filling Station, have been receiving “big love” from the press, radio and those fortunate to catch him in concert. To hear his recent interview and in-studio performance on NPR’s syndicated “World Café,” tune in to WXPN 88.5-FM in the Philadelphia area or listen in on your computer on Tuesday, June 30, between 2 and 4 p.m. ET. To find out if your local radio station carries “World Café,” follow this link. Later the same day, Jesse’s session will be posted on the NPR website. * * * *
Tom Rush’s new CD, What I Know, has not only been embraced by music fans, reviewers and radio shows – the CD is receiving airplay on more than 100 station in the US – but Tom himself is very much in demand on radio. He’ll be performing songs from What I Know as well as some old favorites. Here are some upcoming radio interviews and in-studio performances: An interview with Tom will be carried on the American Public Media-syndicated "American Routes" radio program will be aired the week of May 27 - June 2. The show is carried by more than 300 stations and can be heard online at American Routes. To find out what stations carry the show and at what time:
American Routes affiliates. Tom taped a performance segment in April for National Public Radio’s syndicated “Mountain Stage” show, based in Charleston, WV, for broadcast starting on June 12. The following week, Tom’s set will be posted at Mountain Stage archives. To find out on which stations in your area carry "Mountain Stage," please follow this link: Mountain Stage affiliates. After performing on “Mountain Stage,” Tom trucked over to Lexington, KY, to tape a concert segment for the syndicated “WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour” for broadcast starting the week of May 30 on terrestrial radio and on the week of June 14 on XM Satellite Radio’s “The Village” Channel 15. For information what radio stations will carry the show approximately six weeks after taping, please visit WoodSongs affiliates. Tom’s late-April interview with program host Brad Paul on WGBH 89.7 FM (Boston) is archived here. * * * * Tommy Sands’ American tour with his two grown children/sidepersons Moya and Fionan to celebrate the February release of their Let the Circle Be Wide will end on March 21 with a show in Fairfield, OH, but a fascinating interview with him about his music and his activism for peace can be heard any time on State College, PA’s WPSU (91.5 FM) by following this link: http://www.wpsu.org/radio/folk_archive/.
David Bromberg Gets Around . . .
David Bromberg has been keeping a high profile with his ongoing US tour, performing his distinctive repertoire of bluegrass, folk, roots, blues, and droll 'tween-songs commentary with his acoustic band at shows that frequently feature Angel Band, the trio of female vocalists led by his wife, Nancy Josephson. This past July, David appeared as part of The Big River Project, a wildly diverse line-up of musicians who were part of a week-long tribute to the music of the late Johnny Cash. The Project’s climactic concert was held at the World Financial Center’s Winter Garden in New York City and featured David, performing “Drive On” and “Walking the Blues,” backed by the traditionally-minded group Ollabelle; a cappella masters The Persuasions; power-pop avatar Marshall Crenshaw; John Doe, the former leader of seminal LA punk band X; Jay Farrar, a founding father of the alt-country movement during his days with Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt; and numerous other artists. Bromberg’s past is also catching up to him, not just with the past summer’s release of the archival Live New York City 1982 CD by the David Bromberg Quartet, but also with the newly issued Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Vol. 8 2-CD set of unreleased Bob Dylan recordings spanning 1989 to 2006. The release includes a version of Jimmie Rodgers’ “Miss the Mississippi,” which was one of the songs Dylan recorded in 1992 sessions produced by Bromberg for an unreleased album.
Appleseed songs by subject
Whether you’re a radio or media programmer looking for material or a music lover assembling a mix tape or CD, we have compiled a list of Appleseed songs that share thematic categories (i.e. love, politics, holidays, celebrations of life, cool cover versions, and many other subjects). Please investigate this useful resource for song titles, the artists who recorded them, and on which Appleseed CDs these songs can be found. (click here).
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