Pete Seeger - The Essential Pete Seeger 2CD (2013)

Back in 2005, Sony/Legacy came up with an inadequate and unexceptional The Essential Pete Seeger - a single disc on which a number of tracks were licensed from other labels. That version has lately been recycled as Playlist. As far as The Essential is concerned, better sense has thankfully prevailed eight years down the line. There are 36 tracks across two discs on the new version, all of them selected from the series of excellent Seeger albums released on Columbia in the decade to 1971. Inevitably, there is some overlap with Greatest Hits, but there's greater depth to this product, which kicks off with "Last Train to Nuremberg" and concludes with "My Dirty Stream". All the usual favourites are included, but you'll also find less commonly available songs such as "Harry Simms", "Those Three Are On My Mind" and Pete's cover of "Both Sides Now" (with an additional verse by Pete supplementing Joni Mitchell's lyrics). The affectionate liner notes are by Eric Andersen (although he repeats the inaccurate tale that Pete "pulled the plug on Bob Dylan at Newport"). Anyhow, this is an excellent compilation - and, hopefully, Sony/Legacy will at last consider reissuing all of Seeger's Columbia albums, preferably as a box set, if not then at least digitally.

TRACKLIST

CD1:
01. Last Train to Nuremberg
02. The Power and the Glory
03. John Henry (Live)
04. The Sinking of the Reuben James
05. East Virginia
06. Hobo's Lullaby
07. Waist Deep in the Big Muddy
08. Draft Dodger Rag
09. Pretty Boy Floyd (Live)
10. Where Have All the Flowers Gone (Live)
11. The Bells of Rhymney (Live)
12. Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There is a Season) (Live)
13. Guantanamera (Live)
14. If I Had a Hammer (Live)
15. Keep Your Eyes on the Prize (Live)
16. We Shall Overcome (Live)
17. Those Three Are on My Mind
18. Livin In the Country (Live)

CD2:
01. Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream
02. Both Sides Now
03. The Pill
04. Coal Creek March
05. Jesse James
06. Talking Union
07. Which Side Are You On? (Live)
08. Harry Simms
09. Little Boxes (Live)
10. My Oklahoma Home Blowed Away (Live)
11. Darling Corey
12. Barbara Allen (Live)
13. Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies
14. Abiyoyo (Live)
15. Wimoweh (The Lion Sleeps Tonight) (Live)
16. Michael, Row the Boat Ashore (Live)
17. This Land is Your Land (Live)
18. My Dirty Stream (The Hudson River Song)