“A lot of people knew him as a songwriter and a political activist, but more than anything else he was a community organizer,” said Craig Green to a full-house audience at the Pete Seeger Celebration on Saturday. Held at the Floyd Country Store, the free, public event was a tribute to 6kkthe late music activist and folk revivalist. It featured performances by Blue Mountain Elementary (BMES) and Rising Sun Montessori School 
students, the Blue Mountain High School (BMHS) Grassroots Rappers, the Heartsong singers, Windfall and others.
“He was also a great social philosopher,” said Green, who co-hosted the event with Kari Kovick of Heart of the Child Music Education (formerly The Early Childhood Music Program of Floyd). Green, a BMHS volunteer teacher of songs for social change, spoke about how Seeger saw music as a context for people to share, and as a way to uplift and make the world better.
Kovick, who introduced acts, accompanied student performances and presented some enthusiastic storytelling, agreed, saying that performers were doing what Seeger always proposed: sharing songs. She recalled meeting the legend when she was one of the organizers of the first Southern gathering of The People’s Music Network that Seeger, the song sharing network co-founder, attended. He was “just one of everyone” and not comfortable with adoration, she said.
“He wouldn’t want us to be making a big deal of him today, but he would be all for us making a big deal of ourselves, our lives and our town.” Kovik told attendees. She explained that the tribute concert was organized in that spirit, as a celebration of Floyd. During a student performance of Woodie Guthrie’s This Land is Your Land, words were changed to reflect what participants said they loved about Floyd.
In between acts, citizens came to the stage to talk about their organization or heart-felt project. Randye Schwartz of the CERC (Community Educational Resource Cooperative) spoke about how the cooperative has a long history of providing umbrella non-profit status for fledging organizations, such as Kovick’s music program and the Blue Mountain School.
Seeger wrote many well-known classics, such as If I Had a Hammer, We Shall Overcome and Where Have All the Flowers Gone, but he also showcased traditional folk songs from all over the world. Under the direction of Green, Blue Mountain High School student performers changed the words of the South African song The Lion Sleeps Tonight to pay homage to Jack Wall and Kamala Bauers, who have generously been hosting the first year high school at the Floyd EcoVillage. … In the village, the Ecovillage, we live in the sunlight … Green explained that the EcoVillage will continue to host the school, which is going through organizational changes and will be called the Springhouse Community School next school year. “We’re going strong,” he said.
There were rousing sing-a-longs, harmonies and rounds that engaged the audience. Rosemary Wyman of Heartsong singers spoke about the progress of the Jubilee Co-housing project and introduced the Heartsong Singers, who have been providing comfort and support through song to the terminally ill and their families for the past several years. The singers did a moving rendition of one of Seeger’s newer songs, Bountiful River. … My love is always and ever flowing … flowing forever….we will never part.
Towards the end of the three hour celebration, Kovick played a recording of Seeger’s words. Speaking about the fragile future of the planet and the human race, he encouraged people to get active, saying, “Any grain of sand might tip the scales in the right direction or the wrong direction. Each of us is but a grain of sand.”
Post Notes: The above first appeared in The Floyd Press newspaper on May 29th. The Pete Seeger Celebration was in conjunction with the Floyd Country’s Store’s Saturday Americana Afternoon and incorporated an open mic. Stephen Wallace and Niko Cooley (pictured above) performed a song in Spanish in honor of Seeger. Windfall band members pictures in photo #4 accompanying Kovick and the Blue Mountain Elementary and Rising Sun Montessori School students are left to right Rusty May, Michael Kovick, and Dave Fason. Kovick is also a band member. Watch a video of Craig Green and the high school Grass Roots rappers HERE.And one of the Heartsong Singers HERE.