Benefit for Pete Seeger's Clearwater Foundation 1/19/2020

CHICAGO RETURNS A FAVOR TO PETE!

Pictured below is a shot of the Clearwater from a distance and a picture of the tiller on the Clearwater up close. In 1969, the summer of Woodstock, in Beacon NY. Pete Seeger commissioned the building the Clearwater to sail the very polluted Hudson River. “We will build a boat to save the river,” he said.

Fast forward 50 years. In the summer of 2019, I was in Kingston NY and just by chance met Greg Williams, the Executive Director of the Clearwater Foundation. He gave me a tour of the ship and we traded stories about Pete Seeger.

Being there, meeting him, seeing the ship gave me the inspiration to “return a favor” to Pete Seeger. On many occasions Pete performed at benefit concerts for the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago. Because we were friends, I was always the one who asked him to help us out. I asked Greg Williams if I could return the favor by performing my show, From Senegal To Seeger, as a benefit for the Clearwater Foundation.

And so the story goes, this will happen on Sunday, January 19 at the Town Crier Cafe in Beacon, NY. The Old Town School of Folk Music is helping to sponsor this event. Members of the Chicago folk music community have been invited to donate to this cause as means of further insuring Pete’s grand legacy.