For Pete's Sake - Sing! May 3, 2009

Joining in the national celebration for Pete Seeger’s 90th birthday, The Historic Admiral Theater will host an evocative, multimedia, hootenanny to honor the career and influence of this legendary humanitarian often called the “father of folk-music.”

The May 3 event — entitled “For Pete’s Sake: Sing!” — takes place at West Seattle’s landmark theater on Sunday afternoon and evening and includes a film documentary followed by a hootenanny of Seeger and Seeger-related songs. Anchoring the concert will be the nine-piece Seattle band, Tom Colwell & The Southbound Odyssey. Seattle author and historian Clay Eals will serve as emcee for the event.

Seeger popularized the word “hootenanny” after he visited Seattle in the late 1930s while travelling with fellow folk songster Woody Guthrie.

A portion of the proceeds from the May 3 show will benefit the Northwest Folklife Festival, for which Seeger performed in 1997.

The May 3 event features the award-winning 2007 documentary, “Pete Seeger: The Power of Song,” which screens at 4 p.m. The concert will follow at 7 p.m.

Seattle’s Seeger event takes place the same day as dozens of other Seeger tribute concerts all over the country. The most prominent such show is scheduled at New York City’s Madison Square Garden and features a stellar lineup of headliners, including Bruce Springsteen, Arlo Guthrie, Emmylou Harris, Joan Baez, Judy Collins, Kris Kristofferson, Roger McGuinn, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Tom Paxton, along with Seeger himself.

In true Seeger-esque fashion, Brein-McClellan, Colwell and Eals are seeking to broaden the participation in Seeger’s 90th to involve selected musicians who may want to join them onstage for a song or two at this once-in-a-lifetime event. Those interested in joining the May 3 slate should e-mail their interest, a word (brief) about their association with or memory of Seeger and what song(s) they might like to bring to the hootenanny to Tom Colwell at [email protected], Dinah Brein-McClellan at [email protected], or Clay Eals at [email protected].

The event will feature other unique elements, including the screening of never-before-seen footage of Seeger’s 1997 Northwest Folklife Festival performance.

Official Website: http://www.thehistoricadmiraltheater.com