On the Road: Peggy Seeger

Louise Flind

Is there anything you can’t leave home without? Even if I go out for a walk, I take phone, wallet and credit cards for identification – my partner, Irene, lives in New Zealand. After 20 years together, she decided to get as far away from me as possible. We have six months of the year together in three-month sections – so neither of has winter.

Something you really miss? I even miss the English weather. When you’ve spent your life travelling, you miss the stability of being home, and in New Zealand it takes me weeks to get used to their vowels.

You were born in New York in 1935 and you’ve lived either in England or America throughout your life. Which would you consider home? Here – I went back over there from 1994 to 2010 and I just began to feel homesick for this funky little island.

When did you first come over to Europe? In 1956 – aged 20.

Do you travel light? I learnt with touring to do laundry every night – I even did Ewan Maccoll’s [her late husband, the English folk singer] as I wasn’t a feminist back then.

Favourite destination? It’s like people asking you what’s your favourite song and I say it’s the one I’m singing right now – so it has to be wherever I’m heading. And my children’s homes – I really like seeing what they’re doing with their lives.

Earliest childhood holiday memories? Going to Martha’s Vineyard when I was about ten or 11 in an old 1938 Chevy. It was my first real sight of Atlantic rollers and my father used to hand me his trunks, and then go in with nothing on.

What were England and London like in the 50s when you met Ewan Maccoll? I was slammed into Britain by Alan Lomax [another folk singer] in 1956. I was a long-haired American woman with a long-necked banjo, five-string, during the skiffle movement and I was the cat’s whiskers. I’m sure that built my ego up in a way that I haven’t recovered.

Did you see a lot of your stepdaughter, the singer Kirsty Maccoll? Kirsty Maccoll was born in October 1959; my son was born in March 1959. She was brilliant – her family went into a nosedive when she was killed [by a powerboat in Mexico in 2000, aged 41].

What was Communist China like in the 50s? Mind-blowing – my father was a member of the Communist Party in the 1930s. Ewan was a Stalinist when I met him in ’56, and he suggested I go to the World Federation Democratic Youth Festival in Moscow. From there, we went on to China, which hit the headlines – ‘40 American students go to China against the advice of the American government.’ I was deported from England – the US government wanted all of us miscreants back. So I married for convenience – Alex Campbell [a folk singer] in 1959.

What was it like touring America in the 50s? I had one job – the Gig of Horn in 1957. I went by scooter from New York to Chicago on my own – life-threatening.

What was Pete Seeger like? He was my big brother and I never saw a wrong side of him.

What was Bob Dylan like? He was the second person I knew who idolised Woody Guthrie – Ramblin’ Jack Elliot was the first and we travelled over to Europe on the same boat and rambled all over the boat.

Do you miss America, now that you live in Oxford? I miss the informality of the people. I say hello to everybody when I walk down this little lane.

Where did you go on your honeymoon? Didn’t have one – we came home and got drunk.

Are you brave with different food abroad? I had an ileostomy. I can’t eat onions, garlic, lentils or salad. I carry a little green card which says if you give me any of these, I’ll be dead on your floor.

Strangest thing you’ve ever eaten? Bees in chocolate in China.

Peggy in 1971, by David Gahr

Memorable experiences in restaurants when abroad? Durgin’s steak house in Boston when I was 18. I went there on a dare with a bunch of boys and they gave you a steak about as big as that magazine. If you finished it, you could have another one – so I finished it and I had another one.

What is the strangest place you’ve ever slept in – while being away? In a tent in Colorado – it wasn’t strange but it was unbelievably uncomfortable. I was the resident folk singer on a canoeing trip.

Have you made friends when you’ve been away? I have very few actual friends – I’m not good friend material.

Peggy Seeger is author of First Time Ever: A Memoir (Faber & Faber, £9.99)