Pete Seeger celebrates 90th with musician pals

Musician Pete Seeger walks past Joan Baez, Bruce Springsteen, Patti Scialfa, Tom Morello and Dave Matthews during a concert celebrating Seeger's 90th birthday in New York May 3, 2009. Photo by Lucas Jackson/Reuters

Seeger, wearing a plain red shirt, blue jeans and a blue hat, happily joined in with his guests on several numbers. At one point, he plunked out a lead on his five-string banjo during a driving, 12-bar blues. But he was truly in his element when he led the audience in an a cappella version of "Amazing Grace." The gray-bearded singer raised his arms in exultation as a rich three-part harmony filled the arena.

"There's no such thing as a wrong note as long as you're singing it," Seeger said. Then he gave a history lesson about John Newton, the author of the song and a former slave ship captain who became an outspoken opponent of slavery. "John Newton gave us all the greatest hope of all, that we can turn this world around," Seeger said.

That belief took root early in his life. Born in New York in 1919, Seeger was the child of two musical parents. He was fascinated by his father's work as a musicologist and developed a love for the banjo during field trips to the South. After dropping out of Harvard in 1938, he began what became his life's work -- traveling around the country, singing and writing songs about working people, and speaking out on political issues.

Soon he met Woody Guthrie, the legendary songwriter who penned "This Land Is Your Land," and the two of them helped change the face of American folk music. They formed the Almanac Singers, a left-wing singing group, and Seeger later co-founded the Weavers, who achieved mass success with 1950's chart-topping "Goodnight, Irene."

But the Weavers also drew heat during the anti-communist fervor of the late 1940s and early 1950s. Seeger, who had joined the Communist Party before drifting away from it in 1949, was blacklisted for his political sympathies.

He continued to record and make concert appearances, although he was banned from American network TV for 17 years. When he finally resurfaced on "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" on CBS in 1967, his anti-Vietnam War song, "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy," was censored. But it was broadcast the next year and is credited by many observers for helping cement public opinion against the war.

He still lives on the same patch of land in upstate New York where he's been with his wife, Toshi, since 1949, but travels less.

His once confident, split-tenor voice quavers now, and during Sunday night's party he struggled to be heard. During the concert's final encore, he let the crowd do the heavy lifting in a rousing version of "Goodnight, Irene."

"Pete has always believed in the power of singing to change the world," said Arlo Guthrie earlier, paying tribute to the man who befriended his father. "And there's a special feeling when people sing together. It changes everything, both inside you and outside."