Pete Seeger Quotes

It seems like bluegrass people have more great stories to tell than other musicians.

I like for it to be mountain music or old-time country music or traditional bluegrass. Either one will fit me. It's traditional, basically.

I don't listen to the radio too much, but usually I listen to Stanley Brothers and Ralph Stanley more than I do anybody!

I was never into the Bluegrass, Bill Monroe and stuff like that.

Bluegrass has a very, very strict musical form. Once you start to dilute it, it disappears.

I've never set out consciously to write American music. I don't know what that would be unless the obvious Appalachian folk references.

Early Bluegrass is my favorite kind of music, not to many people know that.

The first music I remember hearing was the traditional songs of Kentucky - things like 'Roll Along Kentucky Moon.'

There's nothing purer than Janette Carter with an autoharp.

I love Don Williams records. And old Ralph Stanley and Bill Monroe.

My son, Walker, has a band called The Dust Busters. You know, he plays banjo, fiddle, guitar, and mandolin, so a lot of my interest in that kind of music comes from him constantly listening to this stuff. He's taught me the history of it. It's remarkable how these young kids are now turned on to more traditional old-time music.

Bluegrass is really a big part of my background.

I've always wanted to make a bluegrass album.

I am fascinated by the places that music comes from, like fife-and-drum blues from southern Mississippi or Cajun music out of Lafayette, Louisiana, shape-note singing, old harp singing from the mountains - I love that stuff. It's like the beginning of rock and roll: something comes down from the hills, and something comes up from the delta.

I know there's some kind of history to mountain music-like it came from Ireland or England or Scotland and we kept up the tradition.

I've always liked country music. It's a certain aspect of America that goes back to the British Isles and the influence is very native to America.

I want you to hear a new version of Dueling Banjos. Anyone else is welcome.

A lot of great bluegrass comes out of Kentucky. There's a lot of great music, like the Judds, Billy Ray Cyrus, Ricky Skaggs, and Keith Whitley. There's a lot of bluegrass intertwined with country music.

Since the beginning, the people of the college and I have agreed that the music of MerleFest is 'traditional plus.'

Bluegrass is in my blood and in my ears.

I have noticed that these pop bands will play our hillbilly songs when they cain't eat any other way!

I was like, 'Man, bluegrass - that's like Roy Clark playing banjo on 'Hee Haw.' I'm a huge 'Hee Haw' fan. But I didn't know about bluegrass. It seemed like old people's music.

There are a whole lot of Carter Family songs.

I moved back to Tennessee in '86 or '87. That's when I worked with the Carter Family because I really wanted to understand my roots.

You may not hear much bluegrass on the surface of my music, but I feel the emotion I put in a song comes from bluegrass. Bluegrass taught me to interpret a song, not just sing it.