
The University of New Mexico
NEWS RELEASE
Contact: Carolyn Gonzales 277-5920
cgonzal@unm.edu
June 8, 2007
UNM Prof Tunes a New Ear to Seeger
In a 1971 interview folk singer Pete Seeger said he uses songs to illustrate a story and dialogue between songs to carry the story forward. David King Dunaway, University of New Mexico professor of English, carries Seeger’s message further.
Dunaway recently received $15,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts’ Arts on Radio and Television advisory panel to produce three one-hour radio documentaries on Seeger. Dunaway also received a contribution from Seeger’s friend Yip Harburg, lyricist for “Wizard of Oz.”
Seeger in print, film and radio
Dunaway, who has interviewed Seeger some 15 times through the years, created, “Pete Seeger and American Folk Music Revivals,” scheduled to air on international public radio stations (PRI).
A 2007 film, “Pete Seeger: The Power of Song,” by filmmaker Jim Brown is another format where Dunaway used his interviews. Dunaway even has a cameo or two in the film.
Dunaway authored, “How Do I Keep From Singing: Pete Seeger,” by McGraw Hill in 1981, and he recently updated the biography.
Access to Archive
“I discovered that a great deal of the material that I compiled and transcribed from my interviews would never be in the book, would never be found. So I am publishing a book of oral histories on Seeger, based on the interviews,” Dunaway said. He noted that two graduate students from the Department of English, Molly Beer and Felicia Karas, are co-authors on the book.
Dunaway presented 2,000 pages of transcribed Seeger interviews at the symposium. “They have been digitized, indexed and made an accessible collection within the folk life archive at the Library of Congress,” Dunaway said.
Blacklisted
In 66 years as an artist, Seeger recorded 153 albums. “Yet he was the most picketed and blacklisted since John Wilkes Booth. He bears the distinction of being the only musician to be investigation for sedition,” Dunaway said.
“His recording and performing tell the dramatic story of the power of music to make the world a better place,” he said.
Seeger was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. His contribution to folk music – its revival and survival – cannot be overstated. With the possible exception of Woody Guthrie, Seeger is the greatest influence on folk music of the last century.
Seeger and Toshi, his wife of 59 years, live in a house he built in Beacon, New York, an upstate town along the Hudson River.
“Seeger represents hope for a more just society. He is still there, still hoping. Some of us are hoping with him,” Dunaway said.
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