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Cerys takes listeners on a global journey of discovery with music of all genres and eras.

Cerys Matthews celebrates music of all genres and eras, taking listeners on a global journey of discovery from the recordings of early pioneers to latter-day luminaries.

BBC Music on the World Service with Cerys Matthews: Peggy Seeger - US Folk Singer

Discussion & Talk

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14/05/2016 GMT

Peggy Seeger - US Folk Singer

BBC World Service - BBC Music on the World Service with Cerys Matthews, Peggy Seeger - US Folk Singer

How US folk singer Peggy Seeger became an instrumental figure in the British folk revival

How US folk singer and songwriter Peggy Seeger became an instrumental figure in the British folk revival.

Whilst travelling around the world in her 20s, Peggy Seeger received a phone call from the folk song collector Alan Lomax, who was in London and needed a banjo player. She eventually settled in London, where she met Ewan MacColl, a future musical partner, collaborator, and husband.
 
They performed together, organised regular club nights, branched into political theatre and activism, and created the Radio Ballads for BBC Radio, an innovative project that used real voices to tell stories about the working class British.
 
Since then Peggy has made over 20 solo records and contributed to more than one hundred recordings with other performers. In her 80th year, these energetic endeavours continue apace. In 2015 she won a prestigious BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for Swim To The Star, an original song about the sinking of the Titanic. That same year, she helped mark the centenary of Ewan MacColl’s birth, and between gigs and lectures, she has somehow found time to write her memoirs.
 
Amongst the incredible stories, we hear some of Peggy’s own compositions, as well as recordings from Ewan MacColl and those of her brother Pete.

(Photo: Peggy Seeger performs at the Clearwater Benefit Concert, New York, 2009. Credit: Bryan Bedder/Getty Images)

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