Singer and songwriter Joel Rafael will pay tribute to folk singer and activist Pete Seeger at a free public concert next week.
Seeger, who died in January at age 94, may be best-known for his songs “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?,” “If I Had a Hammer” and “Turn! Turn! Turn!” His seven-decade career included leading 500,000 people in song at a 1969 march against the Vietnam War in Washington, D.C., and a 2012 song he contributed to a locally produced album benefitting migrants in the Arizona desert.
The concert begins at 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 5, in Ashurst Auditorium. Admission is free, but advance tickets are required and available through NAU Central Ticket Office and, if available, at the door on a first come, first served basis.
Following in the tradition of Seeger and Woody Guthrie, Rafael’s songwriting spans four decades of chronicling the world around him with music rooted in the folk tradition. He has opened for such performers as Crosby, Stills and Nash, Sheryl Crow and Emmy Lou Harris. In 2004 he toured with Joan Baez and in 2001 he recorded Seeger’s “Last Train to Nuremberg” on the 2001 compilation, Songs of Pete Seeger.
His song, “Dance Around My Atom Fire” from his album America Come Home, won the 2012 International Acoustic Music Association’s Best Folk Song.
“This is an incredible opportunity,” said Robert Neustadt, professor of global languages and cultures and the organizer of the event. “Joel Rafael is a master performer with a soul. He is the perfect performer to honor Pete Seeger.”
For information, contact Neustadt at (928) 522-3307 or Robert.Neustadt@nau.edu.