First Time Ever: A Memoir

by Peggy Seeger

Overview

A superbly wrought memoir from one of folk music's most respected and influential musicians A Guardian, Sunday Times, Observer, Telegraph and Financial Times Book of the Year

The musician Peggy Seeger has lived a life full of art and passion, family and separation, tragedy, celebration and the unexpected – and irresistible – force of love. It would by any standards be an extraordinary story, but what elevates her account is the beauty of the writing in her fascinating memoir: it is clear-eyed and playful, luminous and melodic, fearless, funny and always truthful, from the first word to the last.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780571336807
Publisher:	Faber and Faber
Publication date:	12/04/2018
Pages:	464
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.70(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Peggy Seeger is a singer of traditional Anglo-American songs and activist songwriter, with 200 songs under her belt, one a major anthem of the women’s movement. She is a multi-instrumentalist – playing piano, guitar, 5-string banjo, Appalachian dulcimer, autoharp and English concertina – has recorded 23 solo albums, and has contributed to more than 100 others. In 2014, she was awarded the inaugural Women in Music Award for Creative Inspiration, and in 2015 she and her son Calum won Best Original Song at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. She has an Honorary Doctorate in Art from the Universityof Salford and lives in Oxford.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations xi

Forethoughts xiii

I 1935-1955

1 Twice upon a Time 3

2 Childhood 13

3 Growing Up 25

4 The Songs and the Singers 37

5 The Helpers 41

6 School 48

7 1953 63

8 North, West and East 72

II 1955-1960s

9 Europe 83

10 England 96

11 Santa Barbara and Chicago 107

12 Break a Leg 116

13 Moscow 120

14 China 127

15 Russia and Poland 141

16 Marking Time 147

17 Alf Edwards 152

18 Conversation in France 157

19 A New Family 169

20 Folk Revival 186

21 Wallpaper and the Meaning of Music 196

22 The End of the Beginning 202

23 Settling Down 211

24 The Radio Ballads 221

25 Charles Parker 232

26 Collector's Fever 236

27 The Women Who Came to Work 248

III 1960s-1989

28 The Critics Group 257

29 From Overcoat to Sandstorms 271

30 The Golden Years 281

31 Napoleon and Me 292

32 The Occupants of Hell 297

33 Break the Other Leg 307

34 Living the Songs 315

35 The Shows Go On and On Until 320

36 1989 331

37 The Little Wooden Box 341

IV 1990-2016

38 No Spring Chickens 349

39 Alone Again, Naturally 358

40 Personal Political Progression 363

41 Asheville, North Carolina: Part One 376

42 Asheville, North Carolina: Part Two 388

43 Boston, Songwriting 395

44 Are Lawnmowers and Folk Music Political? 405

45 From There to Here 412

46 The First Time Ever 421

47 Life with Sydney and Big Charlie 428

48 The Beginning of the End 433

49 Slow Express to Eternity 439

50 The Last Time Ever 446

Acknowledgements 449

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"I loved this book - it is deeply personal and idiosyncratic and generous, and evocative of so many different eras and moments. Peggy Seeger is a master of traditional song who's life has spanned many important and fascinating eras of musical and cultural life on both sides of the Atlantic. Her memoir brings all of this to life in a distinct voice: eloquent, feisty and wise."—Sam Amidon

Editorial Reviews

"A quirky, unique, and fabulously memorable memoir."—STARRED Kirkus Reviews "I loved this book - it is deeply personal and idiosyncratic and generous, and evocative of so many different eras and moments. Peggy Seeger is a master of traditional song who's life has spanned many important and fascinating eras of musical and cultural life on both sides of the Atlantic. Her memoir brings all of this to life in a distinct voice: eloquent, feisty and wise."—Sam Amidon "This whirling memoir follows the folksinger and activist through international tours, crises in her famous musical family, and a long, all-consuming relationship with the British singer Ewan MacColl. Seeger’s conversational prose has a flair for capturing the common (a 1938 Chevy 'had a vertical fish-mouth and a fat lady’s rump') and the cataclysmic; remembering her mother’s early death, she writes, 'I try to see and hear things for her, to lure her spirit back from the lost body.' Colorful characters flit in and out, and, remembering them, Seeger, who is now eighty-two, is often wistful. Of one friend, she writes, 'He died, but he is still in my present tense.'"—New Yorker

From the Publisher