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PETE SEEGER & BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN TO SING AT INAUGURATION CONCERT EVENT

Sing Out! Posted on by
Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen are scheduled to sing this Sunday at the Lincoln Memorial during “We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration At The Lincoln Memorial” . The event will be taking place at 2pm on Sunday afternoon and the is expected to draw a crowd of 500,000. HBO will air the concert live at 2:30pm ET with two encore showings scheduled for 7pm ET and 11:30pm ET, and they are making it available for free to all cable operators. The concert will also be available online at www.hbo.com.
The concert was initially scheduled for two hours, but it is believed that it will run longer.

The star studded event will feature performers from a variety of musical traditions, and contemporary folkies will enjoy hearing from John Mellencamp and James Taylor, among others. President-elect Obama and Vice-President-elect Biden are scheduled to speak.

Springsteen apparently extended the invitation to Seeger to join the celebration and while it is not confirmed, it is rumored that they will sing Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land”.

It is particulary fitting that Seeger has joined the celebration. Seeger marched with Dr. Martin Luther King during the Civil Rights movement and he introduced the civil rights leader to the song “We Shall Overcome” – which was sung at the historic March on Washington in August 1963 when Dr. King made the “I Had A Dream” speech.

A spokesperson for the Clearwater, the environmental group that the 89 year old Seeger founded, announced that the folk icon is “honored and excited” to be part of the Obama inauguaration event.

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Posted in Folk Music Notebook, Ron Olesko Tagged permalink

About Ron Olesko

For over 40 years, Ron has been a radio programmer with WFDU-FM in Teaneck, New Jersey. In 2019 he created www.FolkMusicNotebook.com - a 24/7 Internet radio channel devoted to folk music and is available worldwide. Ron created WFDU-FM's TRADITIONS in 1980, a show that he continues to host and produce every Sunday afternoon from 3 to 6pm Eastern Time. He's the president of and booker for the Hurdy Gurdy Folk Music Club in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, and is a regular contributor to Sing Out! as well as the host of the Folk Music Notebook blog on this site. Ron can also be found emceeing concerts and festivals around the NYC/NJ area.

Comments

PETE SEEGER & BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN TO SING AT INAUGURATION CONCERT EVENT — 5 Comments

  3. Anyone know who was the guy to the right of Seeger, playing Pete’s 12-string? –Asheville, NC

  5. What an amazing performance. I watched the whole show, which was a terrific set of music, of all varieties.<BR/><BR/>I’m not one to get weepy, but watching this, and listening to it, started me crying. What joy on Pete’s face!! And what a triumph he must feel right now. The Circle really is Unbroken.

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