The Mid-Week Beat: RIP Pete Seeger

January 29, 2014
By Jimmy Berg

Music fans got some sad news yesterday, legendary folk singer and rabble rouser Pete Seeger passed away at the age of 94.

Over the last 24 hours, it’s been interesting watching the variety of musicians come out with memories and tributes to Seeger on Facebook:

“Peter Seeger towered over the folk scene like a mighty redwood for 75 years. He travelled with Woody Guthrie in the 1940s, stood up to Joe McCarthy in the 50s and marched with Dr Martin Luther King in the 60s. His songs will be sung wherever people struggle for their rights. We shall overcome.” – Billy Bragg (UK-based singer/songwriter)

“To everything there is a season and a purpose under heaven. Turn, Turn, Turn Pete Seeger 1919-2014 Pete Seeger, America’s tuning fork”, believed in “the power of song” to help bring social change.” – Willie Nelson (legendary country music singer/songwriter)

“RIP, Pete 1919 – 2014 – “You want to know why Pete Seeger is beaming (see photo)? He was watching a rocking set from Wanda Jackson. So much for the old folk music versus rock and roll conflict.” – Elvis Costello (UK-based singer/songwriter)

“Pete Seeger was not satisfied just having spectators. He believed that getting people to sing with him would bring them together, bringing more awareness to social injustice. RIP Pete Seeger” – Mike Ness (founder of Social Distortion, legendary Orange County punk band)

“Yes, he really was a swell guy wasn’t he? And by “swell guy,” I mean an absolute bad-ass pioneer of punk, free will, free expression (save for his distaste of the electric guitar) freedom for all humanity, equal rights…you name it, he tried to save it! R.I.P. Pete!” – Mark Pickerel (Seattle-based drummer for Screaming Trees, Neko Case and others)

“R.I.P. Pete Seeger. The Pope of capitalism-hating banjo nerds passed away today. You will be missed Petie!” – Blackbird Raum (Santa Cruz-based folk-punk band)

“Pete Seeger is the reason I’m a banjo player. He invented the job I have. His example has been illuminating and inspiring, and his voice will be missed. If you’ve ever seen Pete perform, you’ve lifted your voice in song with him. He showed us that our voices were just as important as his. In honor of Pete, we should all sing out today, but don’t sing alone! If enough people join in, It might feel like he’s still here. We do have a hammer!” – Curtis Eller (North Carolina-based acrobatic, yodelling banjo player)

Spit Take Saturday: Kurt Braunohler

September 14, 2013
By Julie Seabaugh

Welcome to Spit Take Saturday, courtesy of Brown Paper Tickets’ Comedy Doer Julie Seabaugh and her professional comedy criticism site The Spit Take. Julie’s goal with the site is to “elevate the public perception of stand-up comedy to that of a legitimate art form, and to enable comedy criticism be taken as seriously as that of theater, film, music, food, even video games. No a**-kissing. No bias. No mercy. Just honest, unfiltered, long-form reviews written by professional, knowledgeable comedy critics.”

Every week Julie will select an entry from the site to be included on our blog and hand-pick some related events happening that week that she feels all you comedy lovers out there will appreciate.

So, without further ado, let us introduce you to this week’s Spit Take Saturday!

__________________________________________

The title of Kurt Braunohler’s debut album, How Do I Land?, comes from the hilarious and absurd stunt he pulled off this past March, for which he launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $4,000 so he could enlist a pilot to skywrite “HOW DO I LAND?” across the Los Angeles sky. As Braunohler explains on the album, he believes inserting stupidity and absurdity into daily life for their own sake can make the world a better place, if only for a short time. Going so far as to say this premise is his “purpose as a comedian,” it’s quite clear that these are not hollow words, but rather something of a guiding vision for Braunohler’s onstage persona.

Read More…

Comedy >

Spit Take Saturday: Caroline Rhea

August 24, 2013
By Julie Seabaugh

So, without further ado, let us introduce you to this week’s Spit Take Saturday!

__________________________________________

Plenty of seats remaining in her 120-capacity venue, Caroline Rhea was nevertheless in good spirits at her eponymous Edinburgh Festival Fringe show, or at least in good enough spirits to joke about how thing weren’t exactly going her way. “I had this song written for me for the Fringe,” she noted of her intro music, Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline,” leading the audience in a synchronized arm-wave and chorus sing-a-long. She also recalled how, having spent summers in Scotland while growing up, her family always enjoyed After Eight Thin Mints following dinner. Out came the cookies, around they were passed, and in Rhea dove to an informal, personable, self-deprecating hour of material surprisingly and deliciously registering on the PG-13 side of the spectrum.

Read More…

Comedy >

Spit Take Saturday: Shane Mauss

August 17, 2013
By Julie Seabaugh

So, without further ado, let us introduce you to this week’s Spit Take Saturday!

__________________________________________

There are comedy festivals, and there is the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Just ask Shane Mauss, whose self-spoken intro welcomed his small but amiable audience to “the finest comedy room in a car park in all of the Fringe! He’s been on Conan a bunch of times, Jimmy Kimmel and lots of other American shows you’ve never heard of and don’t care about…”

Read More…

Comedy >

The Mid-Week Beat: RIP Pete Seeger

Spit Take Saturday: Kurt Braunohler

Spit Take Saturday: Caroline Rhea

Spit Take Saturday: Shane Mauss

Topics

Tags