Chicago banjo player Michael Miles had a 25-year correspondence with legendary folk musician and activist Pete Seeger, who died earlier this year. We revisit Jay Shefsky’s conversation with Miles about how the cards and letters changed his life.
Read a selection of letters and postcards from Seeger chosen by Miles.
Seeger’s first letter to Miles:
Sept. 17, 1988
Dear Michael Miles,
Just a note of thanks for keeping me on your mailing list, and congratulations on the widening range of material that the Old Town School presents, I especially like the idea of a workshop on African music. You might consider sometime having a workshop on how to play gospel piano. The type of piano playing known in African-American gospel churches is a great folk art, and I’m not sure if it has ever been written down properly.
Seeger’s second letter to Miles:
Nov. 13, 1988
Dear Michael Miles,
Only today I was able to get to listen to your tape of clawhammer banjo duets, and I hasten to write again to let you know it is one of the most beautiful tapes I ever listened to in all my 70 years. It is enough to make me want to start learning how to play the banjo all over again.
A letter of encouragement from Seeger to Miles:
Dear Michael – If a plane can take me from Nashville to Chi. on Nov. 8 I can make it!...Congrats on growth, and even more congrats on broadening the words folk music to include traditions of African-Americans, Latin-Americans and others.
Seeger’s last letter to Miles:
November 2005
Dear Michael:
Congrats on your extraordinary CD. I sent it to Sing Out & I'm sorry this answer to your letter is so brief. Toshi & I sit across a table piled high with letters. In several boxes are recordings I’ve no time to listen to. Against a window are several hundred books sent to me which I’ve had no time to more than skim. We usually read for an hour or two before sleep – and some books I so admire that I order extra copies to give away. Like “Granny D.-Walking Across America in my 90th Year” by Doris Haddock & Dennis Burke.”
Read a selection of postcards by Seeger.
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