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Saturday, August 8, 2009

Folk musician Mike Seeger dies at 75

Mike Seeger died at his home on Friday night at the age of 75, NPR has reported.

An American multi-instrumentalist well known in the folk music community, Seeger once told LedZeppelinNews.com he did not know who Robert Plant was when he recorded for the album Raising Sand with Plant and Alison Krauss.

On Sept. 25, 2007, he said:

"I don't know if I should really make my ignorance known, but I didn't know who Robert Plant was. I've heard of Led Zeppelin, but I'm so engrossed in traditional music including bluegrass and country-western that I don't know other kinds of music much. ... I did know Alison Krauss. Alison is a wonderful singer and fiddler and bandleader ... and on the strength of her music, and with T Bone [Burnett] producing it, I thought I could help some."
Seeger's sole contribution to Raising Sand was on the closing track, "Your Long Journey." He proclaimed the track to be "one of the most beautiful songs in the genre." Fittingly, its lyrics surround the imminent passing of a loved one.

The version on Plant and Krauss's album bears a prominent autoharp track from Seeger.

When asked why he might have been selected to contribute to the album, Seeger told LedZeppelinNews.com, "Well, I think it was that I play a fairly traditional-sounding autoharp style, and it fits with the older songs."

"Your Long Journey" is credited to the husband-and-wife duo of Doc and Rosa Lee Watson, who originally recorded it for the 1963 LP Doc Watson & Family (available on CD since 1993 as The Watson Family).

Seeger deserved credit for being awfully open-minded in his musical tastes. He was raised on a steady regimen of recordings his parents often carried back from trips to the Library Congress.

"I'm interested in a lot of sounds," said Seeger. "I was reared on those field recordings and my parents' singing to us and my brother [Pete Seeger]'s music."

Seeger lived in Lexington, Va. NPR reports that Seeger had recently been "working on a video documentary project focusing on current Southern banjo players."

About the author

Steve "The Lemon" Sauer is a writer and musician based in Boca Raton, Fla., who has dedicated a portion of his life researching the history of rock group Led Zeppelin and monitoring the ongoing careers of the band's surviving members. Although he was barely a year old when Led Zeppelin broke up and it took him until his teen years to appreciate the music, it didn't take long to make up for it.

Steve is currently a contributing writer and consultant for Get the Led Out, a weekly syndicated radio program hosted by Carol Miller and syndicated in 100 U.S. markets including New York and Los Angeles. He also provides content for a Web site associated with the radio show, www.LedZepOnline.com.

In 2007, Steve launched Lemon Squeezings: Led Zeppelin News to cover the lead-up to the band's reunion concert at the end of that year. Since then, he has closely examined every rumor of a followup tour since then, often dispelling or clarifying misinformation perpetrated by the mainstream media. Using his journalistic training, Steve has also uncovered some facts and accounts previously unreported elsewhere.

At age 18, he began publishing On This Day In Led Zeppelin History, a daily newsletter detailing the interactions of members Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Bonham, John Paul Jones, and their manager, Peter Grant. The newsletter is located at www.OnThisDayInLedZeppelinHistory.com.

He enjoys uncovering stories and has employed various methods to communicate those stories to Led Zeppelin's vast fan base, utilizing terrestrial radio and the many facets of the Internet: from Usenet newsgroups to plain e-mail and now Facebook and Twitter. Steve also connects with live audiences when performing as a backup vocalist and keyboard player with various bands, including past onstage appearances with three cover or tribute acts performing the music of Led Zeppelin.

Do you have a news tip to share with Steve? Do you have something you would like him to write about? Would you like to book him for a speaking engagement? He can be contacted by e-mail at Steve at LedZeppelinNews.com.

Other Led Zeppelin information from Lemon Squeezings

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