Most folks who know me here know I play the 5-string banjo.
I live in Idaho, a dry state where water has always been very important. To my farming and ranching family, any water has always been good water, and that has been ingrained in me since I was a young child.
I used to play in public a lot as a part-time professional, but I hung up those spurs quite a while back.
I hadn't played in public for several years, and hadn't played my banjo very much for over a year, as there were other things taking up my time, but when an old accordion-playing friend of mine called up with an invitation to play in an event that was to bring attention to our water, and honoring an individual who played a huge part in cleaning up some massive pollution in a mighty river, I could not let this occasion go.
It wasn't a big event, but it was important, no matter it's size, and was sure enough for me to pull out a banjo I've rarely used for quite a while. This diary was first just an email to a buddy, but I decided it might be worth sharing here. I hope it's worth the read.
">Mike & 3 Daves
Dave S. on accordion, Dave McG. on fiddle, Dave Dave G. on guitar, and a Mike on the banjo.
This is the first time I've played in public for over 2 years. Due to various life events, I haven't even played very much at home for over a year, but I couldn't turn down.
The local Unitarian Church's pastor used World Water Day to make it an occasion to remember Pete Seeger as well. Pete joined the church late in his life.
More importantly, Pete Seeger was also a major force in getting the Hudson River, one of America's most important waterways, cleaned up after 150 years of pollution.
Since this was an occasion that was equally dear to me in two different ways at the same time, I was grateful for the opportunity, and I had a most excellent time. I could not have spent a better day!
I'm not a devout person, but I couldn't pass up an occasion to honor Pete; without him and his little instruction book, "How To Play The 5-String Banjo", my life would have been different and much less rich. I took up the banjo at age 18, at a time when it had almost become extinct as an instrument, and when there were no teaching materials to be found for it.
The 5-string is a very conceptually challenging instrument, and it's counter-intuitive nature makes it very difficult for beginners to understand it. Pete invented a very simple and versatile playing style that anyone can learn within a few hours that provides all the basic keys to unlocking the 5-string's mysteries.
And his invention of banjo tablature, an alternative musical reading system that uses numbers, not notes, was the prefect way to get beginners going. Tablature is an easy to understand running graph of which strings are plucked and fretted, and which frets need to be used to produce a melody. It is now the standard method used world-wide to teach the 5-string, and is also widely used to teach the guitar and some other fretted instruments as well. For banjoists, it's also an easy way to transition into learning notation, the world standard for reading music. His little book, done the way Pete lived his life- keeping things simple- created many thousands of new 5-string players since it was first published in 1961, and is still in publication, unchanged, today.
Without it, I probably would have fooled around with my first banjo for a few weeks, then given it up and put it under the bed. That's what happens to most of the 5-strings that are sold. But, thanks to Pete, I'm now in my 53rd year as a player, and the banjo really changed my life. I became a pretty good player, and my banjo opened up hundreds of doors that would have never existed to me otherwise, has brought me hundreds of new friends, and has lined my pockets for decades whenever I really needed the money the most. I never set out to become professional, but it happened, and my life became all the better for it.
My first good banjo was like Pete's. Part of the man's genius was designing the best singer's banjo ever invented. Using a Seeger style long neck banjo allows a singer to change keys very quickly and smoothly on an instrument that was not designed for easy key changes.
In his way, his design was very simple; all he did was add 3 extra frets to the traditional 5-string's neck, making the neck longer. Seeger style banjos are still being made by all the major banjo manufacturers today, and they're currently enjoying a resurgence in popularity right now after being THE banjo to buy in the 1960s folk song boom.
I wore my old long neck banjo out. Over time, as my skills increased, I began to play more and sing less, and I began using a conventional 5-string. But several years ago, when I had the opportunity to get an old long neck in wonderful condition, I bought it, just to have around if the need ever arose for it. I played it last Sunday, and played it in the Seeger style. This was the first time it came out of it's case in quite a long time, but it was perfect for the job. It all came back to me as naturally as opening an old well-loved book to read again.
Pete was a man who left many large contributions to our society and the whole world, but very possibly, the largest of them all was his effort to clean up the Hudson River. And, in very many ways, his Clearwater Project most typifies the man and how Pete did things.
Pete hated garbage all his life. While he never made a big deal out of it, he was famous for going around anywhere he played after the show was over, quietly picking up any trash others left. If others helped, that was fine, but he always did what he could do, no matter how many or few joined him. He was truly a Force of One.
Pete lived in the banks of the Hudson. Knowing the man, I've always believed the inspiration for the wonderful Hudson river schooner he got built as both a symbol and a means of picking up garbage came from his own back yard, where he must have cleaned up the trash that drifted onto the banks by his home.
That schooner, the Clearwater, was the perfect vessel for raising public awareness. The Hudson River schooners were specifically designed and built, originally by the Dutch settlers, as tough little packet boats that could brave the strong currents of the mighty Hudson, and beat their way upstream against the current. Hundreds of them once floated the river, bringing trade goods and passengers up and down the stream, opening up the wilderness and creating much of the wealth and economic power that made the state of New York a real force world-wide.
Everyone knew the Hudson was polluted, and very one else waited for someone else to come up with some grand plan to clean it all up.
Pete simply saw it as he did everything else; if he could get 1,000 people who didn't know each other to sing in harmony, picking up the garbage wasn't much different. Folks could sing while pick up garbage.
Using a good boat that needed nothing but the wind to power it, and hold a lot of garbage, was simple, very visible, full of optimism and hope, and something anyone could understand and do. Float, stop, sing and talk, and pick up some garbage a little at a time, never stopping, worked.
Pete's goal was for folks to be able to swim and eat a fish they caught from the river without getting sick. A humble goal. Something humans have done since we became humans. He never saw it as too big to accomplish, even though he admitted it was going to be a big job. Pete knew big jobs are done a little at a time, never stopping until they are finished. He understood some things are never finished in a lifetime, too, or never finished at all. Lots of big things require lots of time to do.
Pete's been gone a year now, but the Clearwater sails on. And it will continue to sail on for a very long time to come; those little schooners are built strong and built to last. The Clearwater could easily outlast us all.
While we played many songs Pete wrote and/or popularized, one of them stumped us. Guantanamera.
It's a song with a beautiful melody everyone knows, but I never memorized the Spanish lyrics, and found trying to read them and sing them at the same time was impossible. It was impossible for the other guys, too.
But, as luck would have it, there was a Cuban-American in the congregation. The gentleman was very humble; he said he was a terrible singer, and he was, but Pete wrote melodies even bad singers can sing, and the fellow sang with all his heart.
Then, afterward, he spontaneously told us all the great new meaning Guantanamera has now. A Guantanamera is a person from Guantanamo. The gentleman said he was from there, and it was time to close the prison in Gitmo now for good. He came to America to be free, and it broke his heart to see America using his childhood home for such tyrannical purposes.
I think Pete would have agreed. He was a pacifist, but he was never a passivist; if he could have, he would have been the first to march up to the gates of the Gitmo prison and demand justice for the prisoners inside.