Quotes and Reviews

Four Guys Rolled into One

Peter Siegel’s Living in Rome delivers humor, political commentary & fine playing

It’s just one of those strange coincidences that Peter Siegel’s name is so close to one of his musical gods — Pete Seeger. But, there are many threads running between the legendary folksinger and Siegel, a Northfield musician who has just released his third solo CD: “Living in Rome.”

Siegel’s new recording mixes traditional tunes with his own songs. There’s Siegel’s elegant, jazzy version of “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” which is spare and renders the timely, heartbreaking essence of the song without melodrama.

The title song refers to the over-consumption of the Roman Empire and its parallels to modern life. One of Siegel’s lines refers to the bizarre shows put on in the Roman Coliseum as being “Reality TV without the TV.”

His song “Boxed Up,” co-written with his wife, Michelle, speaks of people trapped by the things they own — and the money they owe to keep up a high-maintenance lifestyle.

Another Siegel composition, “The Local’s Leaving Town,” is based on a true story of a kindly Vermont man driven away from his family homestead because his newly arrived neighbors don’t approve of the way he keeps his property.

My favorite Siegel composition on this CD is called “Four Guys Rolled Up in One,” a ragtime-y lamentation from a man who is trying to be “everything” to the woman he loves.

Musically speaking, Siegel really is “four guys rolled up in one:” a contradance musician who plays frequently with the Greenfield Dance Band at the Guiding Star Grange in Greenfield; a singer-songwriter who performs solo at colleges and coffeehouses; a guitar teacher at Vermont Community College; and a chorus teacher for the Winchester Elementary School in New Hampshire.

He’s more than four musicians, if you count the instruments he plays: piano, guitar, banjo, mandolin, ukulele and what he calls “foot percussion,” which is used in many traditional tunes.

“My goal is really balancing between playing music and being in my community, with my family,” says Siegel, the father of a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old.
Siegel grew up in a musical household and heard plenty of Seeger’s music. Siegel was about 7, growing up in Yonkers, N.Y., when his parents became active in a cause dear to Seeger’s heart: cleaning up the Hudson River. Siegel said his parents were very involved in the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater program, which Seeger started to provide educational tours down the Hudson and spark awareness of the environment.

One day, the captain of the Clearwater sloop — a banjo student of Seeger’s — would end up teaching the musically proficient Siegel how to play banjo.
Another major musical influence, fiddler Jay Ungar and his then-wife Lyn Hardy, came into Siegel’s life in an unusual way: as customers in the family’s optician business.

Ungar is well-known in contra-dance circles and for his radio show “Dancing on the Air” on WAMC. But he is probably best known for writing “Ashokan Farewell,” which was used as the theme song for the Ken Burns documentary “The Civil War.”

Ungar gave Siegel’s father one of his recordings, which is how Siegel was introduced to traditional fiddle music. Siegel occasionally performs on “Dancing on the Air.”

Siegel said he was writing songs “almost from the beginning.”

“Not very good songs,” he adds.

His grandfather, a violinist, had begun teaching Siegel how to play piano when Siegel was 3. But Siegel didn’t get serious about music until he was 11 or 12, when he started taking guitar lessons. He and his sister, Laurie, joined up with the Hudson River Sloop Singers when they were 12 to 14 years old, he said. Later, they branched off with another singer, performing as “The Harmonious Hogchockers.”
As a teen, Siegel also took classes at The Jazz Mobile in Harlem.

Siegel majored in political science while in college, but minored in classical guitar.

Now 36, Siegel has been living in the Pioneer Valley for about 12 years and had also lived for a time in Guilford, Vt.

In 2004, he won the WRSI songwriter’s contest, winning not only a Martin guitar but a trip to Colorado, where he appeared with Judy Collins, John Cohen and Nick Forester on the nationally syndicated, live-performance radio program “E-town.”

“The fun part was playing with Judy Collins and John Cohen, from the New Lost City Ramblers,” he remembers.

Siegel describes “Living in Rome” as being “a little more acoustic music and a little more folky and down home” than his earlier CDs. “The instrumentation is minimal,” he said.

He said half the CD was recorded in one day, in a house in Brooklyn. “When you record analog, it gives it a little more of a true sound.”

“I always find I have to have some nonoriginal material because I have the feeling that I’m part of a tradition. And I want that link to a tradition,” he explained. “Pete Seeger probably has the biggest influence on me.”

Siegel said his separate musical “lives” are not always compatible.

“I’ve almost never had contra dancers come up to hear me play (at a concert),” he said. “Dancers want to dance. When Friday and Saturday night comes around, they don’t want to go sit down and hear a concert. One told me: ‘Why should I pay to hear music when I can’t move around?’”

“As a musician, half your life is getting people to come hear you play. A lot of people I know only play concerts,” he said. “If I’m playing, it’s two gigs a week, 20 hours with teaching, six hours giving guitar lessons. I don’t know a single person that has the same situation that I do.”

When asked what his elementary students think of having a singer-songwriter as their music teacher, Siegel laughs.

“They have no idea, actually. Part of it is just that a lot of young people today don’t understand that you can be a good musician who works playing at gigs, who is not on the radio or having music for sale at the local music store. When they see (me) playing, they’ll start saying, ‘Do you know any REAL songs?’ It’s that whole ‘American Idol’ concept, that people have to be validated by media play,” he said.

“I feel like I’m constantly battling our culture — the forces of things like video games. Games that don’t give kids the space to create their own boundaries and scenarios. They don’t understand that if they apply themselves to one thing for a long time, there will be a pay off. Some don’t understand the difference between playing a real guitar and playing ‘Guitar Hero,’” he said, referring to the video game. “To break that line between reality and nonreality is really difficult, I think,” he said.

Siegel said his goal “is to basically continue doing what I’m doing in a sustainable way. I’m looking for enough recognition to continue doing what I do. I’m not really going for fame. I think, realistically from the point of view of someone who have a family and doesn’t want to be on the road all the time, it’s hard to continue doing what I want to do.”

Siegel is also passing on the family’s love of music to the next generation. His daughter Zinnia, 3, is already playing a bit of ukulele and she loves to contra dance at family camps, he says.

His CD will be for sale through the Web site CD Baby, (cdbaby.com). It is also for sale on DigStation, which will let you listen to short clips of each song: www.digstation.com.

Siegel will be performing on Friday, April 11, at PACE (Pioneer Arts Center of Easthampton), 41 Union St., starting at 7 p.m.

Billed as “The Funny Men of Folk,” this show will also feature Teddy Goldstein and Eric Schwartz and promoters warn that it will not be appropriate for children.

Ticket prices are $10 and $8 for members. For more information, call |(413) 527-3700.

After a Midwestern music tour in mid-April, Siegel will be back at the Guiding Star Grange for contra dance music on May 9.

Siegel typically performs contra music with the Greenfield Dance Band every second and fourth Friday of the month at 8 p.m. at the grange, which is at 401 Chapman St., Greenfield. 8 p.m. (Swedish music and dancing typically starts at 7:30 p.m.).

You can get current information on performances at the grange by going to its Web site: www.guidingstargrange.org
You can find music samples through Siegel’s Web site, which also has information on him and on how to purchase his other CDs.
Staff reporter Diane Broncaccio has worked at The Recorder since 1988. Her beat includes west county. She can be reached at: dbronc@recorder.com or: (413) 772-0261 Ext. 277.

Dianne Broncaccio
The Recorder April 10, 2008

None of the members of Housetop, a "swinging string band" based in southern Vermont, can tell you how long music has been an integral part of their families, but they can tell you that as far back as they can remember, family members have been breaking out in song.

At a nearly sold-out show at the Hooker-Dunham Theater in downtown Brattleboro Oct. 26, Housetop showed off its quirky brand of music, an amalgamation of western swing, bluegrass and "roots" music. Their repertoire includes music from the '30s and '40s, such as that performed by the Ink Spots, The Boswell Sisters, Fats Waller and Fred Astaire.

Housetop also plays some of its own compositions as well as songs written by Bob Wills, Dan Hicks and the Roches.

The quartet consists of Naomi Morse on vocals, fiddle and mandolin, Erica Morse on vocals and upright bass, Anna Patton on vocals and clarinet, and Peter Siegel on vocals, guitar and mandolin.

Siegel, a mainstay of the traditional dance scene in the area, is known for his unique style combining hip-hop, finger-style blues, fiddle tunes from Ireland, Quebec, New England, Appalachia, swing, funk and country songs with lots of yodeling.

Patton calls Housetop a string band with close vocal harmonies.

"It's a little ambiguous, but it leaves room for what we like to do," she said, but added they play "mostly swing."

Naomi Morse and Patton started their friendship and collaboration as members in Village Harmony when they were 16 years old.

Village Harmony is a year-round unauditioned chorus of young musicians, ages 12 and up, based in Vermont. During the school year, the ensemble draws singers to central Vermont for two-day weekend rehearsals and local performances, culminating in a two-week-long performing tour.

"And we know Peter through the contra dance scene," said Patton.

Siegel, a member of the Greenfield Dance Band, said it's a rare delight when all four of them can find time in their busy schedules to play together on stage.

"It's always a special treat to play anytime people show up," said Siegel, who grew up hearing stories about his grandfather.

His grandfather, playing the violin, was the subject of a painting by Norman Rockwell for the cover of the April 28, 1923, issue of The Saturday Evening Post.

Siegel, whose family hails from the Hudson Valley, grew up around the music of folk legend Pete Seeger.

"His music is so all-inclusive," said Siegel, who now lives in Guilford. "His philosophy became what I lived by."

"We always did sing," said mother Charlene Morse. Every time the family was in the car it would sing, she said. "Singing was just something we did."

It was important for Naomi and Erica, and sister Joanna, to play music on their own and not be pushed by their parents, said Charlene Morse, who described the family philosophy as "never pushing," but supporting and encouraging.

Charlene teaches music at Marlboro and Townshend elementary schools.

"We feel totally blessed to have them in our lives," said their father, Jonathan Morse, a member of the Brattleboro Community Chorus.

Patton, who grew up in Burlington, moved to Brattleboro seven years ago because of the music scene.

It's a music scene "you can't pin down," she said.

And the Hooker-Dunham Theater is the perfect place to feature the eclectic brand of music that flourishes in Brattleboro.

"The key to this place is the variety of the programming," said Barry Stockwell, the manager of the Hooker-Dunham Theater and Gallery. And it's not just music and film, he said, with art exhibits and monthly comedy and poetry nights.

"It's a listening room. Not a bar where you are competing with other activities."

Bob Audette
Brattleboro Reformer
October 26, 2007

Peter Siegel
The Show
Sing Out!

Wow. That was the word that came to mind when the song “Crack in the Windshield” faded out at the end of my first time through Peter Siegel’s The Show. As someone who listens to hundreds and hundreds of recordings a year, I welcome an artist who takes a few chances. Peter does that. The Show is a concept album that works on several levels. Peter spends much of his time playing with dance bands and performing concerts in his home state of New York and throughout New England. You may have even seen him knocking around with Clearwater’s Hudson River Sloop Singers.

He calls his style of music and performing “Space-Age vaudeville” – an adequate description of what you find on this impeccably produced and artfully designed package. Peter sings and plays a variety of string and percussion instruments including guitar, mandolin, clawhammer and tenor banjo, bodhran, and foot percussion. He is joined by an accomplished assembly of musicians adding everything from fiddle and bass, to Moog synthesizer and heavy metal guitar. But then what would a vaudeville show be without a wide variety of sounds and styles?

The opening track is a 1920s style rag that sets the stage for a musical romp that bounces around between the political, the personal, the humorous, and the frivolous. Peter raps and rants his way through 14 mostly original songs that don’t even come close to be pigeonholed to a particular style. His traditional roots show throughout, as does his youthful energy and attention to contemporary sounds.

In a world of cut and paste downloads it’s great to hear a recording like The Show – a CD that is better when taken in from beginning to end, without interruption. I have not had the pleasure of seeing Peter Siegel perform live, but after hearing his latest, I am most definitely intrigued.

Matt Watroba
Sing Out!
Spring 2005

Original Link - http://valleyadvocate.com/gbase/Music/content.html?oid=oid:96090

The Professional

That Peter Siegel won this year´s edition of WRSI´s singer-songwriter contest is a bit deceptive. He and his banjo have been regulars on the western Mass. contra dance scene for years; his new record, The Show , is his second as a solo artist (both are self-distributed, as per contest rules); and everything about him -- his Web site, the design of his CD cover, the polish of his recordings -- is indicative of an experienced professional.

All of which, of course, is a good thing. It wouldn´t mean much to win a contest if it was restricted to people who couldn´t handle themselves on stage and in the world. And Siegel, who´s playing Northampton this week, can handle himself. His sound, also, is more eclectic than one might expect from a contra dance player. Bluegrass-inflected music predominates, but not to the exclusion of other genres: folk, singer-songwriter, even hip-hop. And Siegel´s left-wing politics -- he refers to himself as a union-minded red diaper grand-baby -- manage to be passionate without becoming preachy.

Daniel Oppenheimer
January 13, 2005

Peter Siegel’s “The Show”

On Peter Siegel’s “The Show” CD you might be put off by the weird, amateurish cover art that pastes his photographed head on the bodies of a simply drawn, scantily-clad chorus line ... but push on because this local strummer has a split-level artistic vision and real instrumental talents. On songs like “Numb” Siegel combines old-time music of banjos and fiddles with lyrics of 21st century alienation. “Drivin’ in my car and I don’t hear the birds, Bombarded with pictures I don’t feel the words.” You find yourself singing along with words like “Look real good but I’m real numb, my life’s a pacifier.” He takes aim at easy targets like television consumerism (“The Treadmill”) but pulls it off because of his genuine, biting humor and instrumental virtuosity. Peter Siegel is part of the Greenfield Dance Band that performs regularly at the Guiding Star Grange Contra Dances and he plays in the excellent string trio Underbelly. On “The Show” CD Siegel is ably assisted by his bandmates from Underbelly, Michael Daves on keyboards and guitars and Alicia Jo Rabins on fiddle and vocals.

Johnny Memphis
Daily Hampshire Gazette
10/14/04

Hi Peter,

Mike Kelsey here, at WFHB community radio in Bloomington, Indiana.

I wanted to let you know that I received the two CDs (The Show and Underbelly) and have enjoyed them greatly. I have played two from "The Show" on my yednesday morning show (Treadmill and the Foolish Questions Reprise), and rather expect I'll be playing more there. I'm particularly fond of Treadmill.

The old time music will get played on my Saturday show, "Old Time Train 45." My only complaint is that you didn't list (or at least, I didn't find) the full names of the players (though I think I've pieced them together from the writing credits, where the first initial is used with a last name, and the instrumental credits, where the first name is used without a last name...)

We have on our show a drum-sniffing cat named Pufff, who searches out and destroys drums (she started out working as a drug-sniffing cat, but her addiction to The Nip sort of squelched that career), and I'm not sure what she's going to think of the bhodram, but I'll take the chance....

thanks for the music, and I hope you're getting played. Let me know if you're ever planning to be in the neighborhood of south-central Indiana.

best,

Mike Kelsey
WFHB Community Radio
Bloomington, Indina

Review of the June 8 Underbelly concert at the Club Helsinki by Seth Rogovy. Special thanks to The Eagle, Tuesday, June 10, 2003 - Great Barrington

The Northampton-based string-band trio Underbelly has only been together a short time, but already the group has super written all over it.

Adding up the parts alone would get you a hefty sum, as the preternaturally young and talented singers and musicians of Underbelly have packed plenty of training and experience into their early years. But when joining forces, as heard at Club Helsinki on Sunday night, the members of Underbelly are a fierce unit, protecting each other's musical flanks and propelling themselves along with rhythmic and harmonious inspiration.

When it came to playing folk music, in the largest sense of the term, there seemed little that Underbelly couldn't do and do well. They leapt with nimble ease from old-time Appalachian fiddle tunes to contemporary topical songs, from Southern delta blues to Gypsy fiddling. They tied it all together with a freewheeling spirit, a brash confidence and an inerrant sense of rhythmic sense that belied their jazz training and familiarity with funk without ever violating the music's fundamental authenticity.

The group kicked off with a fiddle tune played by Alicia Jo Rabins, a founding member of cutting-edge folk group the Mammals and a veritable walking encyclopedia of ethnic fiddle styles. Multi-instrumentalist Peter Siegel added deft, funky banjo riffs below Rabins, while Michael Daves provided the harmonic bed on guitar.

Daves was born and bred to play this music, having grown up in a family of old-time musicians in Georgia, and he was dazzling in versatility on guitar, mandolin, fiddle and vocals. He sang the old-time country song "June Apple" with a high, lonesome twang, and the delta blues "Sittin' on Top of the World" with a deep, resonant drawl.

Siegel's specialty is updating old-time music for the 21st century with a political twist. He sang about the excesses of consumerism accompanying himself on five-string banjo, and the joys of composting his own excrement on acoustic guitar.

Rabins described the group's original compositions as "pseudo old-time music," but on pieces like her own "Sugar Shack" you'd be hard put to tell the difference. She also connected the music of the American south to that of Eastern Europe, rendering the Yiddish theater tune, "Di Grine Kuzine" with Gypsy flair -- echoed by Daves on some very Andy Statman-esque mandolin -- and on a poignant, solo klezmer tune stamped with her own, unique kvetches. She was also a compelling singer, delivering a haunting "Long Black Veil" in smooth, rounded microtones with Siegel and Daves provided piercing close harmonies.

Seth Rogovoy
The Eagle

Peter Siegel: Move the Mob

by James Tilton The Phoenix of Indiana University, Northwest

"Move the Mob" is a proper title for an album that strives to reach the masses of people that create the mob of humanity. Peter Siegel and company relive the music of generations past with opportunities of the present time, with great power and success.

To accurately capture music of the past take discipline. To capture music of our present times takes a gifted sensibility. Peter Siegel has the seasoned musicianship to contribute to the legacy that is necessary music in these American times. He carries with him messages and ideas that must be carried on by the citizens of this great nation as well as the people across the world. From songs of lost love and songs of the we and not the me, "Unity" is a present connection within the songs that Siegel and the crew represent.

If you put aside your preconceived ideas of what a collection of music should be, then you will be able to hear the universal truths and myths of what it takes to survive in today's world. Happy shinning people that tell fairy tales can make us forget about our lives, but what matters is reality.

When you try to pay attention to the world, realize you have every opportunity to change the lives of the people around you as well as your own way of living. There is a theme of change and revolution that echoes through this album. "Move the mob" is an incredible map that captures the styles of roots music and folk music that have developed and continue to flourish today.


This review was written in connection with Peter Siegel and Friends' September 18 class for Professor Ron Cohen on songs in social action and a concert at the Gallery on September 19

"Peter Siegel has seen the enemy and he, or she, is us. His sense of humor, however, saves him from a world filled with strip malls, and low flush toilets. Odd, wired, and eclectic only begin the describe pieces like "Malthus" (folk-rap) and "Those Festivals" (barbershop quartet). A fun liberal extravaganza."

Ronnie Lankford Jr.
Summer 2002 issue of Sing Out!

"Peter Siegel knows how to incite and delight through his words and music. He evokes the politics and humor of Phil Ochs and Tom Lehrer. Siegel's latest, Move the Mob, is witty, timely, topical, and eloquent A thoughtful artist in the effort to blow open and validate the consciousness of his audiences and our time."

-David Kupfer, whole earth Magazine

"Peter Siegel has a dance musician's sensibility, a comedian's timing, an activist's eye on current events, and a humanist's empathy; he understands that music can impact not only the world but a single person. His music joins many flowing streams: activism, music, satire- and certainly kindness."

"Keen observations of life¹s absurdities, solid songwriting and all-around great musicianship, that¹s Peter Siegel; his delivery is low-key and hilarious, his satire dead center. Somehow he is at once irreverent and respectful, and can aim a zinger with the best of them"

- Margie Rosenkranz
The Eighth Step at Cohoes Music Hall

"...energetic, insightful and with a wry sense of humor. Peter is a multi-instrumentalist quintessential story teller. "MY GRANDMOTHER", the song written for and about his grandmother (and henry ford, and hitler, and christopher columbus, and...) is one of the finest musical testimonies to personal integrity I know..."

- Noel Paul Stookey
of Peter Paul and Mary

"Siegel's work is a superb blend of musicianship and education. He has the rare gift of raising awareness about controversial environmental and social issues through humor and irony. In this way, his music compels you to think and act. I know this because I have seen him do it countless times in my classes."

- Mitchell Thomashow
Chair, Department of Environmental Studies
Antioch New England Graduate School
Author, Ecological Identity and Bringing the Biosphere Home

"Peter Siegel is a skillful, thoughtful, witty and insightful, singer and
songwriter...and a darn good guitar player too! He can keep you entertained,
while touching your emotions and giving you something to think about at the
same time."

- Jay Ungar,
Hudson Valley Fiddler, Radio Host & Co-Composer with Molly Unger of the soundtrack of The Civil War


"(Peter) approaches his music with insight and perceptivity that might make people change their way of thinking about the environment and the world's political scene. "

Wanda Fischer
Host of Hudson River Sampler, WAMC-FM

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