Recordings

Long Time Passing

Kronos Quartet

2020

“While [Pete] Seeger often found and adapted old songs for new situations, he also penned a fair number of new folk songs for use during the folk revival of the mid-20th century. Among them, “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” was a lament on cycles of violence that take many to war and then to the grave… To pay tribute to Seeger, the Kronos Quartet enlisted the voices of Sam Amidon, Aoife O’Donovan, and others to tell the tale in a sort of relay, with a new voice for every verse. The result feels like the song is posing a question that a community ponders, rather than being the rumination of a single singer. Indeed, in these challenging and often troubling times, many of us find ourselves wondering ‘when we will ever learn.'”

Kim Ruehl, Folk Alley

About the album

Long Time Passing: Kronos Quartet and Friends Celebrate Pete Seeger (Smithsonian Folkways) is a tribute to the music, political philosophy, and social impact of American folk singer and activist Pete Seeger. Commissioned by the FreshGrass Foundation to celebrate Seeger’s centennial birthday in 2019, the songs collected here were debuted in a series of concerts in San Francisco, Barcelona, and other locations, culminating in the world premiere of the full multi-artist program at the 2019 FreshGrass Festival at MASSMoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts. Long Time Passing features new arrangements of 13 songs written or popularized by Seeger or his band the Weavers, as well as an original composition entitled “Storyteller” by Jacob Garchik (who also arranged most of the songs) that features archival recordings that were gathered with help from Library of Congress’ American Folklife Center reference archivist Todd Harvey.

SELECT CREDITS
Kronos Quartet
David Harrington, violin
John Sherba, violin
Hank Dutt, viola
Sunny Yang, cello

Sam Amidon, vocals, banjo
Maria Arnal, vocals
Brian Carpenter, vocals
Nikky Finney, vocal prompts
Lee Knight, vocals, banjo
Meklit, vocals
Aoife O’Donovan, vocals
San Francisco Unified School District third-grade students from Francis Scott Key and Monroe Elementary Schools, vocals

Produced by Kronos Quartet and Reshena Liao
Executive Producer: Janet Cowperthwaite

Which Side Are You On? (feat. Lee Knight)
Florence Reece, arr. Jacob Garchik
The President Sang Amazing Grace (feat. Meklit)
Zoe Mulford, arr. Jacob Garchik
Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram
Traditional, arr. Kronos Quartet
Waist Deep in the Big Muddy (feat. Brian Carpenter)
Pete Seeger, arr. Jacob Garchik
Jarama Valley (feat. Maria Arnal)
Woody Guthrie, Lee Hays, and Pete Seeger; further adapted by Joan Soler i Amigó; arr. Jacob Garchik
Garbage (feat. Lee Knight and San Francisco Unified School District third-grade students from Francis Scott Key and Monroe Elementary Schools)
Bill Steele, arr. Jacob Garchik
Storyteller
Composed by Jacob Garchik
Mbube (Wimoweh/The Lion Sleeps Tonight) (feat. Sam Amidon, Brian Carpenter, Lee Knight, and Aoife O’Donovan)
Solomon Linda, arr. Jacob Garchik
If I Had a Hammer (feat. Sam Amidon)
Lee Hays and Pete Seeger, arr. Jacob Garchik
Where Have All the Flowers Gone? (feat. Sam Amidon, Brian Carpenter, Lee Knight, and Aoife O’Donovan)
Pete Seeger, arr. Jacob Garchik
Step by Step (feat. Lee Knight)
Music arranged and adapted by Waldemar Hille and Pete Seeger from the traditional Irish song “The Praties They Grow Small,” adapt. and arr. Kronos Quartet and Lee Knight
Anda Jaleo (feat. Maria Arnal)
Federico García Lorca, further adapted by Maria Arnal, arr. Jacob Garchik
Kisses Sweeter Than Wine (feat. Aoife O’Donovan)
Arranged by Huddie Ledbetter, Ronnie Gilbert, Lee Hays, Fred Hellerman, Joel Newman, Pete Seeger, and Jacob Garchik
Turn, Turn, Turn (feat. Sam Amidon, Brian Carpenter, Lee Knight, and Aoife O’Donovan )
Words from the Book of Ecclesiastes, adapted and set to music by Pete Seeger, arr. Jacob Garchik
We Shall Overcome (feat. Sam Amidon, Brian Carpenter, Nikky Finney, Lee Knight, Meklit, Aoife O’Donovan, and San Francisco Unified School District third-grade students from Francis Scott Key and Monroe Elementary Schools)
Musical and lyrical adaptation by Zilphia Horton, Frank Hamilton, Guy Carawan, and Pete Seeger; inspired by African American gospel singing, members of the Food & Tobacco Workers Union, Charleston, SC, and the southern Civil Rights Movement; arr. Jacob Garchik