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Peggy Seeger: First Farewell
Valedictory gems from a folk music great
CELEBRATORY: Peggy Seeger and Paul Robeson performing in Trafalgar Square in 1960
ANGUS REID, ANDY HEDGECOCK and MARIA DUARTE review On The Sea, A Useful Ghost, Brunello: The Gracious Visionary, and Pinocchio Unstrung
RON JACOBS enjoys a great tale, told by a US communist, of the lives of working-class New Yorkers
BRENT CUTLER searches a new history of contemporary Iran for an understanding of the Islamic Republic, finding both interesting detail and glaring omissions
MARIA DUARTE recommends the true story of the remarkable woman who sued Donald Trump for sexual assault not once, but twice
KENNY MacASKILL is disappointed by a polemical, rather than factual, account of the Lone Star State and its political path since the civil war
PAUL DONOVAN is fascinated by the lives of Charles and Mary Bagot, and the insight this biography shines on the morals of pre-Victorian society
AT THE age of 85 and with a lifetime of singing and campaigning for progressive causes, Peggy Seeger has just released her latest album and it has been described as “probably” her final one.
Yet the songs and the themes explored in First Farewell demonstrate that she is as committed as ever to using music to express both life and hope in these particularly challenging times.
Composed of entirely new songs and with support from sons Calum and Neill MacColl and daughter-in-law Kate St John, the album reflects on growing older as well as developing further concerns such as peace, the environment and feminism that Seeger has had throughout her career.
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