Peggy Seeger and Calum MacColl
..the sparkle in her eye tonight, and the obvious love shared between mother and son, turned this Spiegeltent show into a wholly unforgettable experience.
It's my sixth Norfolk & Norwich Festival event in four days but, as I make my way towards the Adnams Spiegeltent, there is a palpable sense of excitement and anticipation in the air, something that I have not experienced at any of the earlier shows. And this is the first show that I have come to that has been completely sold out in advance. The growing queue to get in and bag a good seat stretches back as far as the entrance of the festival site in Chapelfield Gardens and is now having to make a decision whether to continue backwards into the Gardens or perform a left or right turn.
There is no circus tonight, and the 7.30pm start for the show looks as though it could coincide with a massive downpour outside. However, the excellent Spiegeltent hosts and Festival volunteers have our tickets checked and we are efficiently ushered inside before the heavens have a chance to open.
Folk legend Peggy Seeger is accompanied by her son Calum MacColl on what is playfully described as her 'First Farewell' tour ('First Farewell' being the title of her latest album, and which was named 2021 Folk Album of the Year by Mojo magazine), and the show begins with the beautiful and powerful 'The Invisible Woman', a song about age and gender that shows that, even at 86 years old, Seeger's crusade against prejudice and injustice continues unabated.
And yet this is also a show in which Seeger looks back, reviving classic American folk songs such as 'The Wagoners Lad', and her own 1968 anti-war battle cry, 'Song of Choice'. She gets us to sing along to 'Go On, Old Gator', a song that she and brother Mike recorded on the 1957 album, 'Animal Folk Songs For Children'. She then tells us about her own mother, Ruth Crawford Seeger, a renowned musician and composer, who had composed many classical pieces, includng an acclaimed string quartet. “She composes rather well for a woman” was, apparently, the opinion of The New York Times when reviewing it in 1931.
As Seeger switches from guitar to autoharp, to banjo, and to keyboards, son Calum accompanies on guitar. Their on-stage chemistry is both touching and sincere. He gets to sing a tribute to the science fiction films of his youth with 'The Day We Went to Mars', and a recent song, the poignant and moving 'Liberation Road', written after his recent visit to the American Cemeteries in Normandy. Mother and son become a comedy duo in a delightfully slapstick version of 'The Big Rock Candy Montain', where Seeger breaks off into the lullaby 'Rock a Bye Baby', and Calum pokes fun at our football team.
After more songs from the new album, and a stirring version of Seeger's still-powerful feminist anthem from the late 1970's, 'Different Therefore Equal', the main set concludes with a moving version of 'The Song of Living', the last song to be recorded by her late husband, Ewan MacColl. Written as an ode to the mountains, its poignancy and beauty sees Peggy Seeger's mask of professionalism slip slightly for just a moment as the memories clearly return.
The encore consisted of 'Dink's Song', a slow and reflective American folk song that appeared on 2008's 'Bring Me Home', and is paired with 'Gotta Get Home By Midnight', the lovely upside-down Cinderella song that closes 'First Farewell'. Written from the viewpoint of a 100 year old woman looking back to the night when her Prince Charming told her to “Come home whenever you like”, it certainly seems the perfect way to end this heartwarming and moving performance.
Peggy Seeger may be 86 years young, and she may not move around the stage as nimbly as she once did. But the sparkle in her eye tonight, and the obvious love shared between mother and son, turned this Spiegeltent show into a wholly unforgettable experience.
