Seeger’s voice may be showing signs of age, but that can be forgiven: she’s 79 and still in fine voice. What’s more, her latest album - her 22nd solo recording, not to mention the hundred or so works with others - still demonstrates a capacity for engaging, and engaged songwriting, both musically and lyrically.
Her career-long interest in songs for children, traditional folk narratives and sociopolitical isues, especially gender issues and women’s rights are in evidence here, with the lullaby style of ‘Go to Sleep’ and ‘When Fairy Stories End’ incorporating elements of all three. Sparse instrumentation – often piano – accompany her simple, poetic narratives.
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Yet even now, she’s still willing to explore: ‘Flowers by the Roadside’ introduces sparse rhythms, acoustic guitar and Jews Harp, and it’s not just musically she challenges herself: on the title track, written for her mother who died of cancer in 193, Seeger tests her emotions too.
A remarkably strong album that shows that Peggy Seeger’s still sharp and has still got what it takes.
Peggy Seeger Online
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