Photo by Anthony Pepitone (via Wikipedia)

We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that today is the 90th birthday of pioneering folk musician PETE SEEGER. His contributions to folk music (and popular music) are numerous, so here’s to taking a moment out of our day to wish him a Happy Birthday!

Allmusic’s Zac Johnson put it best: “Perhaps no single person in the 20th century has done more to preserve, broadcast, and re-distribute folk music than Pete Seeger, whose passion for politics, the environment, and humanity have earned him both ardent fans and vocal enemies since he first began performing in the late ’30s. His never-ending battle against injustice led to his being blacklisted during the McCarthy era, celebrated during the turbulent ’60s, and welcomed at union rallies throughout his life. His tireless efforts regarding global concerns such as environmentalism, population growth, and racial equality have earned him the respect and friendship of such political heroes as Martin Luther King, Jr., Woody Guthrie, and Cesar Chavez, and the generations of children who first learned to sing and clap to Seeger’s Folkways recordings must number in the millions. Rising above all of Seeger’s political ideals and his passion for authentic folk music is his clear voice and chiming banjo which both sing out with a clarity that rings true.”

Don’t forget – you can hear Pete Seeger and many others on New Jersey’s longest running folk music program, WPRB’s Music You Can’t Hear On The Radio tonight at 7PM ET!

Below, enjoy a clip from “To Hear Your Banjo Play” (1947):