Peggy Seeger has been award the Songlinges World Pioneer Award 2025! Check out the full article here

Throughout her long and quite extraordinary career, Peggy Seeger has always been a pioneer. She was born in the US in 1935 but helped to transform the folk scene in Britain, firstly through her work with Ewan MacColl and then as a solo singer-songwriter who simply got better and braver as she got older. I can’t think of any other artist who has developed so dramatically late in life. She is often angry, but also very funny, and has moved from ‘message songs’ to work that remains political but now covers a broad range of topics, from ageing to climate change. Her “final album”, Teleology, included a gloriously witty tribute to Paul Simon, and the most exquisite version of ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’ that I have heard. Which is only right – Ewan, who would become her husband, wrote it about her.

It’s no surprise that she is a fine musician and multi-instrumentalist. Her mother was an award-winning composer, and her father was involved in setting up the Library of Congress’ Archive of American Folk Song. Her brother Mike played with the New Lost City Ramblers, while her half-brother (or “big brother” as she called him) was the legendary Pete Seeger. Visitors to their house included Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie. Peggy was destined to be a folk singer, and after working in the US and Europe, she moved to England in 1959 and later married Ewan MacColl, who was 20 years her senior. They founded the Critics Group in the mid-60s, creating a platform for folk artists in London, and released close to 50 albums together from the 50s until the 80s. Though, it wasn’t easy, as her typically brave 2017 autobiography First Time Ever explains....Read More