At 89

As both artist and activist, Pete Seeger never surrendered to threats, blacklisting, or old age. At 89 captures folk music’s great elder statesman holding forth with his trademark gusto, offering a selection of familiar and newly written songs interspersed with instrumentals and spoken-word pieces. This 2008 studio recording surrounds Seeger with an assortment of musical friends, including The After Hours Quartet and The Hudson River Sloop Singers. Pete brings renewed life to such signature compositions as “False From True” (a meditation on growing older served up Dixieland jazz–style) and “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy” (still relevant to today, unfortunately). The Hebrew-language tune “Tzena, Tzena, Tzena”—a hit from Seeger’s days with The Weavers—is revised to include Arabic lyrics that underscore its universal message of peace. New tunes like “If It Can’t Be Reduced” (a sing-along ode to waste disposal) and “We Will Love or We Will Perish” (a prayerful lyric set to a Bach melody) are by turns playful and poignant. At 89 finds Seeger looking toward the future with guarded hope and unbroken spirit.