For Pete's Sake: John McCutcheon Speaks

Johnny Cash once called John McCutcheon the most talented instrumentalist he'd ever seen. It's easy to see why -- the man plays more than a dozen different kinds, including his signature hammered dulcimer.

The folk music veteran's new album, his 40th, To Everyone in All the World: A Celebration of Pete Seeger, is a rousing tribute to his idol, Seeger, who died in 2014 at age 94. The set features Virginia blues master Corey Harris, country singer Suzy Bogguss and bluegrass band Hot Rize.

“The first LP I ever bought was by Pete Seeger, and it was called ‘We Shall Overcome,’ ” he tells me in an interview for Richmond Magazine. “It was a concert recording, and I had never been to a concert before. This LP was a revelation because Pete’s audiences, they came to sing. And everyone was singing along in harmony. I’d never heard anything like it.”

McCutcheon’s immersion in traditional music continued through his days at Saint John’s University in Minnesota. On a whim, he traveled south to Virginia and West Virginia to try to learn from some of his Appalachian musical heroes such as banjo player Roscoe Holcomb, fiddler Tommy Hunter and mountain dulcimer artist I.D. Stamper. “Originally I thought, as a college student, that I would come down here and study and marinate myself in it for three months. It was a three-month study that I’m still on 47 years later.”

Read my profile of McCutcheon, "For Pete's Sake," by going right here.

And for more on the music of John McCutcheon, click here.

(Photo by the mighty Irene Young)