Peggy Seeger coming to the Source Arts Centre as part of First Farewell tour

Peggy Seeger, the undisputed queen of folk & political song, will bring her First Farewell tour to the Source Arts Centre, Thurles, on June 18.  

Peggy Seeger will be performing with her son Calum MacColl, a gifted professional musician & songwriter in his own right and producer of many of her albums, including her most recent album, First Farewell, (selected by MOJO Magazine as their #No 1 Folk Album 2021). 

This is an unmissable evening of warmth, humour and exceptional musicianship, mixing traditional and original songs from across Peggy’s remarkable career with anecdotes and plenty of family chat. 

The tour takes its name from Peggy’s recent album First Farewell which was Mojo Magazine’s #1 Folk Album of the Year and was shortlisted for Songlines Magazine Album of the Year.

Christened by The Guardian as Folk’s First Lady and by the Sunday Times as Folk’s Matriarch, Peggy Seeger has 26 solo albums (and over 100 collaborative albums) under her belt. Few artists (and even fewer female artists) can claim such an impressive catalogue of work.

Modesty would prevent her from calling herself a national treasure, but she embodies the term in cultural significance not only for her song-writing and musicianship but also in her refusal to compromise standards or beliefs. 

Peggy is the recipient of multiple awards, including the Association of Independent Music (AIM) Women in Music ‘Most Inspirational Artist’, Folk Alliance International’s Lifetime Achievement and BBC Radio 2’s Folk Awards ‘Song of the Year.  Her life has been full of amazing moments – 

• She is the ‘face’ of ‘First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’, the song that Ewan MacColl wrote for her, made famous by Roberta Flack and covered by hundreds of other artists including Elvis and Johnny Cash. 

• She made her first record at the age of 18, continuing to release records in every decade since the 1950s. She has recorded 24 solo albums and contributed to well over 100 recordings by other musicians. 

• She was step-mother to the late lamented Kirsty MacColl. 

• In 2014 she was awarded the inaugural Inspirational Artist award at the UK Women in Music Awards. 

• In 2015, the song Swim to the Star, taken from the Everything Changes album, and co-written with her son Calum MacColl, won the BBC Radio Two Folk Awards Song of the Year. 

• The only authorised biography, Peggy Seeger, A Life of Love, Music and Politics, by Jean R Freedman was published February 2017.  

Peggy’s own memoir, First Time Ever (Faber & Faber) 2017, was shortlisted for the prestigious Penderyn Music Book Prize, and was named by British newspaper The Guardian as the ‘Best Music Book of the Year’. 

• What will probably be her final original album, First Farewell released in April 2021, is followed by a UK and Irish tour. The album has been produced by her son Calum MacColl and features co-writes with both Calum and his brother Neill, plus co-writes with her daughter-in-law Kate St. John, a noted musician and string arranger. 

• A full-length documentary film about her life, called Song of Myself, is currently in production.