Peggy Seeger/Norma & Mike Waterson/Martin Carthy, London Blackheath Halls

Peggy Seeger

November 13, 2009

The support act outshines the star here so completely that this is a gig of two halves.

Reclusive Mike Waterson’s rare appearance, in baggy jumper and cloth cap, holds us spellbound with ballads, tales and rhymes of fishing and dockers and lads loving lasses. Martin and Norma (his sister and brother-in-law) chime in with ancient and modern folk. They sing sad songs to remember their dead sister Lal, the troubled singer- songwriter. Norma sings a calypso from Montserrat, where the black slaves rejoice when their sister dies but sing dirges whenever another new baby is born into bondage.

There are traditional Humberside whalers’ anthems (although Martin points out that he does not believe in killing whales, only in keeping traditional music alive. ) Mike adds his own own witty ditties, drawn from life. It all sounds as clear and pure as the wind whistling in off the North Sea, and sets a high standard for La Seeger.

Alas, Peggy Seeger takes the stage like an American Sunday school teacher, bossing us into singing along. She plays the auto-harp quite well, and the banjo rather clumsily.There is a cringe-making song she wrote in her car after hearing a radio report of an abortion doctor being murdered by pro-life campaigners. We are supposed to sing along to this, too, but mostly refuse.

There is one song we all know and love, written for Peggy by her late partner Ewan MacColl at a time when he was still married to his second wife, Kirsty MacColl’s mother Jean Newlove. It’s ‘The first time ever I saw your face’ which won a Record of the Year Award for Roberta Flack.

“He always said he wrote this song as an hors d’oeuvre, but Roberta Flack turned it into an entrée,” Peggy says, to explain the unfamiliar fast pace and jaunty mannerisms of her version. By the time she has finished with it, the song is fit only for the doggie bag.

Only once, in a song dedicated to her brother who died in August 2009, does Peggy Seeger evoke a sense of empathy. It is still light and humourous in its lyrics, but the grief in her voice is obvious as she recalls all the times she might have spent with him but didn’t.  She looks her age, suddenly, and we all remember that she is in her seventies and Ewan has been dead for twenty years and Kirsty for five years, killed in a boating accident. Peggy’s voice is still strong, but an old-lady screechiness creeps in sometimes.

Then it’s back to the cheesy jokes and the finale, which is literally crap – a long-winded ‘satirical’  ballad about pre-mediated farting. Turning the air green, she remarks that is seems ‘kinda ironic’ to accompany this song on a Steinway grand piano. Folk legend? No, she is your embarrassing great-aunt at the family gathering. Time to retire, Peggy!

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