Peter Siegel is
not your run of the mill guitar strummer. Playing the
blues, swing, hip hop, traditional fiddle tunes on guitar,
banjo, mandolin, bodhran, and his own two clogging feet,
his songwriting and performances
are what can only be categorized as "Space Age Vaudeville".
Originally from the suburbs of NYC, the land of TV and
Strip Malls, fast food and quick judgements, he was positively
inspired by the likes of his parents, his politically
active grandparents, Phil Ochs, Run DMC, Pete Seeger,
Miles Davis, The Beatles, Looney Tunes, Led Zeppelin,
old time music, and some TV theme songs. Later on he was
known around the Hudson Valley as a member of the trio,
The Harmonious Hogchokers; singing original and traditional
songs of the region of political and environmental significance.
Peter has also sung the praises of the Hudson River in
many a River Fest with Clearwater’s Hudson River
Sloop Singers.
Over the last ten years Peter has been a mainstay of the
traditional music scene of the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts.
It is there that he is known for his stint with the new-old
time band Underbelly and his work playing tunes on the
guitar, mandolin, and banjo from Ireland, Quebec, Appalachia
and New England for contra dancers with David Kaynor and
the Greenfield Dance Band every other Friday. In New York’s
Capitol Region one might find him playing dances and concerts
with the Beverwyck String Band.
Last year's grand prize winner of WRSI's (the River in
Western MA) singer songwriter competition, Peter has been
heard solo and with his various bands on WAMC’s Dancing
on the Air with Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, Hudson River
Sampler with Wanda Fischer, WFCR’s Valley Folk with
Susan Forbes Hansen as well as festivals and venues throughout
the nation such as the Kennedy Center Millenium Stage,
Clearwater’s Great Hudson River Revival, The Dance
Flurry in Saratoga, The New England Folk Festival, Falcon
Ridge, the Old Songs festival, The American festival of
Fiddle Tunes in Port Townsend, WA, Caffe Lena, and The
Clearwater Walkabout Coffeehouse. He has opened up for
the likes of Peter Mulvey, Tim O'Brian, and Tony Trishka,
and shared the stage with such performers as Tom Chapin,
Pete Seeger, and Noel Paul Stookey.
Greenfield Dance
Band Photo
QUOTES:
"...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
"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 and composer of Ashokan farewell,
theme to 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.....his music is both enjoyable and thought-provoking.
His songs delve into social issues that many singer-songwriters
choose to avoid, and he tackles these with a sense of
compassion and forward thinking that is unusual in this
day and age...."
--Wanda Fischer
Host of Hudson River Sampler, WAMC-FM
"Peter Siegel knows how to incite and delight
through his words and music he evokes the (folky) 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
"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
"Keen observations of life’s absurdities, solid
songwriting and all-around great musicianship, that’s
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
"Peter Siegel has a lyrical gift that makes me giggle
uncontrollably. He's one of the best songwriters of my
generation and has a gift for showing you just enough
tragedy to get out of your seat and the road to a better
way of life."
-Tao Rodriguez-Seeger, The Mammals
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