Pete Seeger (b. 1919), son of a musicologist and violin teacher, “fell in love with the old-fashioned five-string banjo,” he wrote, during a 1936 trip to a folk festival in Asheville, North Carolina. He immersed himself in folk music while cataloging and transcribing songs in the Library of Congress’s Archive of Folk Song. In his lengthy career, Seeger has performed folk music to support unionism, social justice, international peace, and environmental conservation, among other concerns.