Children's Concert At Town Hall

Album Review

There have been no shortage of memorable live albums by Pete Seeger across the decades — and, in fact, the Carnegie Hall concert from this same era has tended to eclipse a lot of the other performance documents of Seeger's work from the '60s. But this album has a special charm, showing Seeger directing his appeal at a younger audience which he treats with surprising sophistication — perhaps some of what he says is aimed at parents in the audience, but the mere fact that he enunciates such political sentiments in this setting could not have been lost on the young ones. In other words, this was an album that one could grow up on, and it sold well enough on vinyl across the decades so that was absolutely the case with many thousands of kindred spirits of the next generation. Musically, Seeger is in excellent voice as he carries us through a mix of lighter political fare — and some topical and consciousness-raising songs aimed specifically at kids, and the kid in all of us — and children's songs such as "Skip to My Lou" and "I've Been Working on the Railroad." He doesn't do "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," but he does close with "This Land Is Your Land," and includes a few songs he learned from Leadbelly (and mentions him as well — clearly a nod to the parents in the audience). The sound is excellent, state-of-the-art in its time and still crisp and vivid, and the Columbia/Legacy DVD keeps the originally jacket notes as well.