A cast of singers as big and deep as America turned up at the Garden to help Pete Seeger celebrate a rare birthday Sunday night - his 90th.
The wide swath of stars taking part - more than 40 in all - testified to Seeger's role as the key conduit between our nation's trove of older folk songs and all the updates that came in his wake.
Seeger's seminal 1950s recordings of America's union songs, protest numbers and bucolic odes presaged the folk revival of the '60s, thereby influencing every picker and strummer to come.
Many of those paying homage last night hailed from the early stages of Seeger's influence, including Joan Baez, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Tom Paxton and Richie Havens. Also strongly represented were stars who made it big in the '70s like Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, Emmylou Harris and Kris Kristofferson.
Sunday night's event - whose profits went toward Seeger's long-running pet cause to clean up the Hudson River - also brought out some '90s stars, including ex-Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, Rufus Wainwright and Teddy Thompson.
But no artists under 30 appeared, a key oversight considering the rush of twentysomethings currently working to reenliven America's rustic past.
The audience itself made up for that flub - it included a respectable quotient of souls under 30. Certainly, the show itself had a more contemporary, and far more optimistic, tone than it would have had the recent election turned out differently. Many stars evoked the hope of President Obama, including Springsteen, who gave a long and rousing speech at the end recounting his trip to the inauguration with the birthday boy.
Some stars worked cannily to update the material at hand. Ani DiFranco rewrote "Which Side Are You On?" to include lyrics condemning Reagonomics and boosting feminism. Michael Franti added a rap to "Dear Mr. President" that turned the song from a protest to an encouragement.
Politics didn't overwhelm the night. The McGarrigle Sisters and two of their children, Martha and Rufus Wainwright, employed a perilous set of harmonies on "Fare Thee Well" to create an ode of desperate longing. Bela Fleck and Tony Trischka paired on a surprisingly erudite banjo duet that played to Seeger's instrumental side.
A few singers added their own songs, including Mellencamp, who addressed mortality in "Jesus Give Me a Ride Back Home," and Springsteen, who performed his own Seeger-esque "Ghost of Tom Joad."
Seeger himself didn't sing during the 4-1/2 hour event, but he did lead the audience through songs like "Amazing Grace" and "Goodnight, Irene." Of course, Seeger's whole point was always to get the audience to do the crooning, to therefore democratize the music and stress plain voices as the most true.
The crowd used theirs loudly and often, and, in so doing, gave Seeger his ultimate birthday gift - uniting people in song.
jfarber@nydailynews.com
Read more: "Pete Seeger's music in bloom at 90th birthday bash at Madison Square Garden" - http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music/2009/05/04/2009-05-04_peter_seegers_music_in_bloom_at_garden_stars_honor_folk_singers_rich_legacy_at_9.html#ixzz0EX3NHcMK&A
