Like many of his musical peers, shop Pete Seeger’s relationship with an American folk music involved a certain level of myth-making. Having been in the same circles as folk evangelists like Alan Lomax and Moses Asch, Seeger played a key role in developing and defining mainstream and critical associations with “folk music” in America and beyond. Seeger’s musical career arose during a time in which musicologists like his father Charles sought out authentic American folk ballads as part of the WPA’s Federal Music Project in the 1930s, and it was during this period that American folk music began to take on its character as a vehicle for social protest. Woody Guthrie’s legendary standing in American culture, and the pervasiveness of “This Land Is Your Land” over the past half century, would be greatly diminished without Seeger’s efforts to promote him and his music within and beyond the context of protest folk.

Seeger traversed a staggering span of musical and political history from mainstream popularity with The Weavers and blacklisting during the McCarthy Era to performing at the Newport Folk Festival’s 50th anniversary (which he helped found) and Occupy Wall Street. Pop music icons like Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen owe much of their careers to the music and support of Seeger, and Seeger’s influence can be felt even more strongly in the work of recent folk-rock groups like Mumford & Sons. He sang to Eleanor Roosevelt and Barack Obama alike, and lead choruses of countless others across social boundaries.

As if cementing his status as a banjo strumming Paul Bunyan, Seeger reportedly continued to chop his own firewood as soon as ten days ago. Seeger’s experiences and career truly made him an embodiment of living history, and his power as an activist and musician will continue to play on in the American public memory for generations to come.