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TITLE: Seeger Tribute: Welcome, Introduction and Keynote Address
SPEAKER: Neil Rosenberg
EVENT DATE: 03/16/2007
RUNNING TIME: 46 minutes
DESCRIPTION:
The Library of Congress celebrated the musical legacy of the Seeger Family during a two-day program, sponsored by the American Folklife Center, titled "How Can I Keep from Singing? A Seeger Family Tribute." Neil Rosenberg, professor emeritus at Memorial University of Newfoundland, delivered the keynote address titled "Family Values, Seeger Style." In his lecture, Rosenberg discussed the underlying forces, motifs and themes that recurred in the family members' musical and cultural lives.
Speaker Biography: Neil V. Rosenberg was born in Washington State in 1939. In 1951 he moved to Berkeley, Calif., with his family. He attended Oberlin College, (bachelor's degree, history, 1961) and subsequently studied folklore and ethnomusicology at Indiana University (master's degree, 1964; Ph.D., 1970). In 1968, after two years on the staff of Indiana University's Folklore Institute, he moved to St. John's, Newfoundland, to join the Department of Folklore at Memorial University of Newfoundland. He retired in 2004. A fellow of the American Folklore Society and 2001 recipient of the Folklore Studies Association of Canada's Marius Barbeau Award, he has published extensively on Canadian and American folk music topics. His books include "Bluegrass: A History" (Illinois, 1985) and "Transforming Tradition: Folk Music Revivals Examined" (Illinois, 1993). He won a Grammy in 1997 for his contribution to the album notes of the "Anthology of American Folk Music" (Smithsonian/Folkways) . He has been a musician most of his life and today performs with the bluegrass band Crooked Stovepipe, jams regularly with the spontaneous collaborative improvisation group The Black Auks, and plays old-time music from Newfoundland and beyond with his wife Terri.