New Release!!! Pete Seeger Discography

Our Pete Seeger discography is forthcoming from Scarecrow Press in December! Below, you'll find our publisher's description of the book:

Pete Seeger is one of the most recorded artists in American history, and his recording catalog tells us not just the story of his career but the story of our culture and its political and social history. A Pete Seeger Discography: Seventy Years of Recordings is a comprehensive listing of the 45s, 78s, LPs, and CDs recorded by Seeger in his various incarnations: with the Almanac Singers, with the Weavers, as a solo artist, and with other musicians and contributors. David King Dunaway provides information, with easy to use cross-references, on rare recordings and archival collections.

The discography offers details on Seeger's recording history, including the album title, song(s), other artists on the recording, the publisher and number, and the year or exact recording date if known, as well as the original release date and the re-releases of each recording. Structured to make locating details easy for readers, the recordings are organized chronologically and categorized by albums, singles, private pressings, and foreign releases. Readers can easily cross-reference through album and song title indexes and a contributing artist index. An appendix listing the unreleased archival holdings of the Smithsonian Folkways collection under Moe Asch completes the volume, and a photospread with more than 30 of Seeger's album covers convey a pictorial recording history of this well-loved artist.

The authors gratefully acknowledge Furthermore: a program of the J.M. Kaplan Fund, for their funding assistance in preparing this discography.

BEA Best of Festival - Faculty Audio Winner: David Dunaway

David Dunaway Receives Vox Populi Award!

Dr. Dunaway was the first recipient of the Oral History Associations’ Vox Populi (“Voice of the People”) Award, given by renowned author/investigative historian Stetson Kennedy at the 44th Annual Meeting of the Oral History Association in Atlanta.

ABOUT THE VOX POPULI AWARD
The intent of the Stetson Kennedy Vox Populi Award is to stimulate, and give recognition to, collections of oral histories taken from individuals who have devoted much of their lives to activism designed to bring about change for a more democratic, just, peaceful, and harmonious world. In choosing Dr. Dunaway the Committee recognized not only his body of work over the years, but the singularity of documenting social protest in folksong through “How Can I Keep From Singing and Singing Out: An Oral History of America’s Folk Music Revivals”. Mr. Kennedy -- who made the presentation -- is the only living subject of a Woody Guthrie song.

You can find further information about the OHA Vox Populi Award and about the conference at the Oral History Association website.

Dr. Dunaway's acceptance speech for the award is printed below:

My thanks to the local organizers, to the award committee (which I’ll be helping in future years), to Stetson Kennedy, and to my editor at Oxford, Nancy Toff. But we all owe our thanks to the brave men and women who sparked, and survived, the civil rights movement here in Georgia, where so much of it began, and where there were so many leaders.

I was too young to go South in that time; I joined friends of SNCC, at the northern edge of the movement. But, it’s an honor to be surrounded by so many real activists.

Now, talking about the civil rights movement, the FBI played a still-uncharted role in this movement. We really need to know more about this! Some of you know that I sued the FBI under the FOIA, for its records on musicians in the 40s and 50s—one form of historical activism. Before I deposited two thousand pages at the Library of Congress’ American Folklife Center, I asked the FBI if these files still existed. No, came the answer, but they did have a file on one David Dunaway—folksinger. Well, for me, that’s definitely a promotion and a new opportunity.

So, in the spirit of Stetson’s friend Woody Guthrie, I’ll close with a snatch of song (to the tune of “Acres of Clams”). Woody wrote when an FBI man asked if he’d fight for his country:

I answered the FBI: Yea,
I will point a gun for my country,
but I won’t guarantee you which way.

Thank you.

Instant Downloads of "Pete Seeger: How Can I Keep From Singing?" on TradeBit.com

You can access instant downloads of my Radio Documentary series about Pete Seeger and his fellow musicians at tradebit.com.

Check it out!

A New Review of "Singing Out" in the Journal of Music

In the current (August/September 2010) issue of The Journal of Music, Peter Rosser reviews my recent book, coauthored with Molly Beer, Singing Out: An Oral History of America's Folk Music Revivals. An excerpt from the review reads, "...Dunaway, in an important and excellent new book, co-authored with Molly Beer, has uncovered the true life of folk music in North America as it progressed through the world-altering twentieth century."

Read the full review at The Journal of Music online.

Busy Summer

I'm finally back from my many journeys this summer. I was part of a conference and television program in Prague and I had the chance to lecture in South Africa while visiting my son. During my time away I've also been keeping my hometown projects moving along.

I just submitted a proposal to the National Endowment for the Humanities for the America's Cultural and Historical Organizations Planning Grant. The grant was nearly accepted last year, but got caught up in some legal wording. The new proposal has even more interactive and advanced resources for interpreting Route 66, though, and I'm very excited to see where this takes my work.

I also have a book on Route 66 coming out with University of Texas Press in the spring. It will be an anthology of literature and oral histories that reveal the many facets of Route 66.

This fall I'll continue my work here at the University of New Mexico, teaching my course on autobiography, and next spring I'll return to San Francisco State to resume my post as Distinguished Professor of Broadcasting. A lot of good projects and good work to be done this year, and I'm looking forward to it.

Summer Travels

I am off this summer for conferences, lectures, research, and leisure in South Africa, Mozambique, Prague and Copenhagen. Before I left SFSU in the spring I recorded this youtube clip elaborating on the work I do there. Please enjoy.