Pete Seeger's Family Sing-A-Long

At 80, folk singer Pete Seeger still knows how to work an audience--in this case, a group of youngsters and their parents who gathered together in Seeger's living room in his home on the banks of the Hudson River to hear Seeger on banjo and guitar, his sister Peggy on guitar, and his brother Mike on violin. The trio play a string of children's favorites, including "Hambone" and "Five Times Five," and folk classics, such as "The Garden Song" ("inch by inch, row by row; I'm gonna make this garden grow") and "This Land is Your Land." On the latter, the impish Seeger adds a couple of verses that he allows his audience probably doesn't know--sporting lyrics with a more activist/socialist ring to them (Seeger was blacklisted for many years, before returning triumphantly to music with the band The Weavers, documented in the acclaimed 1982 film The Weavers: Wasn't That a Time!). Not just a two-camera concert video, the program mixes in animation, scenes of children playing and dancing, and some fairly creative multimedia approaches to tunes. On the animal song, "The Little Rooster," for instance, a quick-draw Pete sketches animals in real time with his brother's singing. A fun family sing-a-long, this is enthusiastically recommended. Aud: K, E, P. (R. Pitman)