Singer, songwriter and guitarist Jim Scott —seen at right accompanying his friend, the late Pete Seeger — hosts a singalong tribute to the late folk music master Saturday evening at the Unitarian Meeting House.
He counted among his friends and admirers a certain homegrown recording artist whose farmhouse Sessions helped spread the folk gospel chapter and verse to more than one new generation of fans. He was guest of honor at the annual music festival hosted by New Jersey Friends of Clearwater, the Red Bank-based nonprofit inspired by the man’s vanguard work on and around the Hudson River. And when Pete Seeger passed away earlier this year at the age of 94, he left this world not as the larger-than-life icon you’d expect him to have become, but as an extended family member and neighbor who touched the lives of millions.
Among those affected by the folk music master’s time on Earth was Jim Scott — a singer, songwriter, guitarist and collaborator who Seeger himself referred to as “some kind of magician.” A former member of the Paul Winter Consort (he co-wrote their “Missa Gaia/Earth Mass” and sang their anthem song “Common Ground”), and the editor of the anthology Earth and Spirit Songbook, the recording artist and educator comes to the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Monmouth County in a special “songs and stories” tribute to Seeger that takes place this Saturday night at 7 pm.
The public is invited to sing along with Scott on his interpretations of several standards written by and/or made famous by Seeger — including “If I Had a Hammer,” “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?,” “Turn! Turn! Turn!” and more. Admission is by suggested donation of $10 to $15 dollars (taken at the door) — and info on this year’s Clearwater Festival (a salute to the organization’s founder, organized around the theme “What Would Pete Do?”) is available here.
