March 4: Seeger bringing tradition to MTSU

Mike Seeger, who has been called “a tireless proponent and brilliant performer of traditional American music,” will appear in concert at MTSU Thursday evening, March 4.

The 8 o’clock program is free and open to the public in the State Farm Lecture Hall of the Business and Aerospace Building on the MTSU campus.

A master of a wide variety of traditional styles on an impressive array of instruments, Seeger has devoted his life to singing and playing Music from True Vine — the music made at home by rural Southerners before the media age. Over the years, he has absorbed music through direct association with master traditional musicians such as Elizabeth Cotten, Maybelle Carter, Dock Boggs and many others. Seeger seeks out his own vision of the music by creating within its traditions, making his music uniquely his own.

Seeger has produced 30 documentary recordings of traditional music and another 38 of his own music. He has received six Grammy nominations: two with the New Lost City Ramblers, one with John Hartford and David Grisman, and three on his own. In 2003, The Society for American Music presented Mike with its Honorary Member Award, citing his “lifetime of work as a master performer and tireless champion of Southern rural music.”

Seeger’s concert at MTSU is a joint presentation of the Center for Popular Music and the McLean School of Music at MTSU, with funding from the MTSU Distinguished Lecture Fund.

For more information, call the Center for Popular Music at 898-2449.