Next month, legendary folk singer Pete Seeger was scheduled to receive the Woody Guthrie Prize from the Grammy Museum and the Woody Guthrie Center. That ceremony will go on as planned, but is being turned into a tribute show for the late Seeger, who died this week.
Seeger was 94-years-old and his impact on the world of music is immeasurable. Artists from Bob Dylan to Bruce Springsteen have named him as an influence on their work. Rolling Stone notes that Springsteen performed “We Shall Overcome” in his honor in South Africa.
Billboard is reporting that the music community is already getting together to honor Seeger’s life and career. The first-ever Woody Guthrie Prize was to be given to Seeger on Feb. 22 at New York’s Peter Norton Symphony Space. The ceremony will go on and organizers are busy now signing up acts for the show, which was retitled How Can I Keep from Singing!.
“On Feb. 22, we won’t take a moment of silence to remember him,” Nora Guthrie, Woody Guthrie’s daughter, told Billboard. “We will take all the moments to sing -- as loudly and with as many harmonies as we can muster.”
The Woody Guthrie Prize is set to be an annual tradition to honor artists who continue Guthrie’s work, using art to help those less fortunate. Proceeds will go to the Woody Guthrie Center in Oklahoma.
image: Wikimedia Commons
