Long time passing : Kronos Quartet & friends celebrate Pete Seeger

"Aided by well-chosen singers, the string quartet has created a fearless tribute to the godfather of folk protest".

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"Three years ago Kronos Quartet released an album titled Folk Songs, a journey into Appalachian tradition featuring guest singers Sam Amidon, Olivia Chaney, Rhiannon Giddens and Natalie Merchant. It worked so well that they've now recorded 15 tunes from Pete Seeger's songbook in a similar style ... With arrangements by Jacob Garchik (who also worked on Folk Songs and the quartet's album with Mali's Trio Da Kali), Seeger's banjo tunes are seamlessly transposed and expanded for the [quartet] to create a striking accompaniment for the contrasting voices of guest singers: Spain's Maria Arnal, Brian Carpenter, Lee Knight, Ethiopian Meklit Hadero as well as Aoife O'Donovan and the returning Amidon. It's not the most challenging music the quartet has ever tackled, but they manage to make even such over-familiar tunes as 'Turn, Turn, Turn' and 'Where Have All the Flowers Gone?' sound like you're hearing them anew".

"World choice: These luminous reworkings of 15 songs he discovered or wrote, by San Francisco's most adventurous string quartet, underline the fact that their relevance lives on well after his life ended ... His championing of grassroots activism and the collective power of how many small voices can effect change, and fight the unwelcome changes that irresponsibly wield power and capital, remains very reassuring and inspiring".

"At first glance this might look a respectful collection with a whiff of the predictable by the eclectic and right-on quartet. Recruiting sympathetic vocalists (...), they cover Seeger's big protest hits ... But the project is done with imagination and a lot of love. The Kronos (...) enlarge Seeger's clawhammer banjo licks into colourful but authentically folksy arrangements".