Appleseed Recordings
Encyclopedia
Founded in 1997 by activist attorney Jim Musselman, Appleseed Recordings is an idealistic, internationally distributed and independent music label devoted to releasing socially conscious contemporary and traditional folk and roots music by a wide array of established and lesser-known musicians. The West Chester, Pa.-based company’s approach has led to a catalogue of more than 100 CD titles to date, one Grammy Award
, and ten Grammy nominations.
, Donovan
, Tom Paxton
, Tom Rush
, former Byrds leader and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member Roger McGuinn
, Sweet Honey in the Rock
, David Bromberg
, Jesse Winchester
, Buffy Sainte-Marie
, John Stewart, Eric Andersen
, Al Stewart
, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, and women’s music pioneer Holly Near
, international performers Johnny Clegg (South Africa), Tommy Sands
(Northern Ireland), Aoife Clancy (Ireland) and Dick Gaughan
(Scotland), and by a younger generation of musicians, many with sociopolitical leanings, that includes John Wesley Harding
, Kim and Reggie Harris
, Angel Band, Christine Lavin
, Tim Eriksen
and Lizzie West
. Among the guest artists who have participated in Appleseed releases are Bruce Springsteen
, Joan Baez
, Bonnie Raitt
, Steve Earle
, Ani DiFranco
, Wyclef Jean
, Jon Bon Jovi
, and Billy Bragg
.
, actor/writer/director/musician Tim Robbins
) with a request to each record a song written, adapted or performed by Pete Seeger for a tribute album to highlight Seeger’s musical contributions and his tradition of mixing songs and political activism. The resultant 1998 2-CD Where Have All the Flowers Gone: The Songs of Pete Seeger, included 37 newly recorded versions of Seeger-related songs by Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne
& Joan Baez, Judy Collins
, Terkel, Robbins, DiFranco and many others. The release won the American Federation of Independent Music Award as the “Top Independent Release of 1998,” and the duet by Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt on “Kisses Sweeter than Wine” was nominated for a 1999 Grammy as “Best Pop Collaboration.”
From Musselman’s list of fourteen suggested Seeger songs to cover for the Seeger tribute, Springsteen recorded six songs and submitted his version of the traditional African-American spiritual/modern civil rights anthem “We Shall Overcome
” for the compilation. Years after its inclusion, Springsteen’s version of the song was used by NBC-TV news as the soundtrack to a video montage of self-sacrifice and suffering in New York City in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, broadcast nightly for a week. Grieving families also played the song for comfort in the wake of the 1999 Columbine High School massacre. Springsteen later reused the track and some of the other songs Musselman had suggested) for his own 2006 CD release, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions
.
The title song of Where Have All the Flowers Gone, recorded by Irish singers Tommy Sands and Dolores Keane
, “The Cellist of Sarajevo” Vedran Smailovic
, and a chorus of Catholic and Protestant Irish school children, was played daily outside the peace negotiations between Northern Ireland and England and was described by Minister of Parliament John Hume as “a vital bridge of hope and healing between the two sides.”
Appleseed issued a second multi-artist Seeger tribute, If I Had a Song: The Songs of Pete Seeger, Vol. 2, in 2001, and a final two-volume set in 2003, Seeds: The Songs of Pete Seeger, Vol. 3. The latter title was nominated for a “Best Traditional Folk Recording” Grammy award, and both releases also helped generate money for charitable and activist organizations. Seeds also contained an updated version of the Vietnam-era protest, “Bring Them Home,” recorded by Seeger, Bragg, DiFranco and Earle, on the day of the US invasion of Iraq with additional lyrics by Musselman. Springsteen later added some lyrics of his own and included the song in his live performances, TV appearances, and on the live CD/DVD from a Seeger Sessions tour.
Some of the profits generated by Appleseed’s three Seeger tributes were donated to the environmental Hudson River Sloop Clearwater
organization to clean up New York’s Hudson and to help support Sing Out!
magazine. Seeger was one of the founders of both Clearwater and the folk periodical.
In 2007, Appleseed worked with the Give Us Your Poor organization at UMass Boston to release Give Us Your Poor
, another multi-artist CD designed to raise funds and public awareness about the rising crisis of homelessness in America. Among its exclusive tracks was the first-ever collaboration of Bruce Springsteen and Pete Seeger, performing together on the song “Hobo’s Lullaby.”
. Tom Rush, one of the first artists to record songs by Joni Mitchell
, Jackson Browne and James Taylor
, returned to the recording studio for the first time in 35 years and emerged with What I Know, his Appleseed debut, which was subsequently named 2009 “Album of the Year” by the International Folk Alliance organization, based on airplay. The multi-instrumental folk/blues/bluegrass/roots musician and vocalist David Bromberg had retired from recording in 1990 before cutting Try Me One More Time for Appleseed in 2007; the CD was nominated for a “Best Traditional Folk Album” Grammy. The Native American singer/songwriter/artist/activist Buffy Sainte-Marie released Running for the Drum
, her first new CD in 13 years, on Appleseed in 2009. Jesse Winchester, another well-established performer from the Sixties, hadn’t released a new studio album in ten years before 2009’s Love Filling Station was issued by Appleseed. His CD was named one of the year’s best by VH1’s Bill Flanagan on the CBS Sunday Morning television show, who described the CD as “delicate, powerful and moving. . . perfect music for sitting in front of the fire on a cold night.”
and Get On Board: Underground Railroad & Civil Rights Freedom Songs, Vol. 2, which have been used as teaching tools by various black history museums and schools. In 2000, Appleseed released two discs of “field recordings” of traditional American folk songs collected by Anne and Frank Warner on trips down the Eastern Seaboard starting in 1938, Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still and Nothing Seems Better to Me: The Music of Frank Proffitt
and North Carolina. Their recordings included authentic, unvarnished versions of songs such as “Tom Dooley
,” “Whiskey in the Jar
,” and “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands,” which became folk staples through Frank Warner’s performances and songbooks decades before these historic recordings were finally released through Appleseed. Spain in My Heart: Songs of the Spanish Civil War is another multi-artist compilation released by Appleseed and features an international cast of musicians, including Arlo Guthrie
and Pete Seeger, Mexico’s Lila Downs
, Nicaragua’s Guardabarranco duo, and Ireland’s Aoife Clancy and Shay Black.
To celebrate its ten-year anniversary in 2007, Appleseed issued Sowing the Seeds – The 10th Anniversary, a two-CD sampler of catalogue highlights that also included exclusive new recordings by Pete Seeger & Bruce Springsteen (a second historic second collaboration), Donovan, Ani DiFranco, Kim and Reggie Harris, and several more new Pete tracks.
In early 2009, Appleseed won its first Grammy – for “Best Traditional Folk Recording” for Pete Seeger’s 2008 At 89 release.
to champion various safety and environmental causes, including the mandatory installation of airbags in motor vehicles, Musselman finds great satisfaction in combining his commitment to social justice with his passion for music: “I started [Appleseed] because I had seen a void in music tied to social justice and social change, and also seen people not recording folk songs anymore . . . . I wanted to put out music with a message of hope and healing and to record these folk songs . . . . and we were in danger of them being lost forever. . . . I think music can reach people in ways that other mediums can’t. Music touches an emotional chord in someone and tends to speak to people in a lot of ways. . . . Music can break down walls and build bridges between people with different political and social views.”
The UK music magazine Uncut has confirmed that Musselman’s vision is a successful one: “Despite its weighty mission statement – “to explore the roots and branches of folk and world music and sow the seeds of social justice through music,” no less – the Appleseed label is no over-worthy do-gooder. . . . It has spread the word to free-thinking bohemians and quietly built a roster that includes such legends as Pete Seeger, Roger McGuinn, Donovan and Tom Paxton. . . . In keeping the folk fires burning, Appleseed does it with vim, vision and a heap of imagination.”
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
, and ten Grammy nominations.
Partial label roster
Appleseed’s roster includes CDs by “heritage” artists Pete SeegerPete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
, Donovan
Donovan
Donovan Donovan Donovan (born Donovan Philips Leitch (born 10 May 1946) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Emerging from the British folk scene, he developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music...
, Tom Paxton
Tom Paxton
Thomas Richard Paxton is an American folk singer and singer-songwriter who has been writing, performing and recording music for over forty years...
, Tom Rush
Tom Rush
Tom Rush is an American folk and blues singer, songwriter, musician and recording artist.- Life and career :Rush was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. His father was a teacher at St. Paul's School, in Concord, New Hampshire. Tom began performing in 1961 while studying at Harvard University after...
, former Byrds leader and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member Roger McGuinn
Roger McGuinn
James Roger McGuinn is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known for being the lead singer and lead guitarist on many of The Byrds' records...
, Sweet Honey in the Rock
Sweet Honey in the Rock
Sweet Honey in the Rock is an all-woman, African-American a cappella ensemble. They are an American Grammy Award-winning troupe who express their history as women of color through song, while entertaining their audience. They have together worked from four women to the difficult five-part harmony...
, David Bromberg
David Bromberg
David Bromberg is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter. Bromberg has an eclectic style, playing bluegrass, blues, folk, jazz, country and western, and rock and roll equally well. He is known for his quirky, humorous lyrics, and the ability to play rhythm and lead guitar at the...
, Jesse Winchester
Jesse Winchester
Jesse Winchester is a musician and songwriter who was born and raised in the southern United States. To avoid the Vietnam War draft he moved to Canada in 1967, which is where and when he began his career as a solo artist. His highest charting recordings were of his own tunes, "Yankee Lady" in 1970...
, Buffy Sainte-Marie
Buffy Sainte-Marie
Buffy Sainte-Marie, OC is a Canadian Cree singer-songwriter, musician, composer, visual artist, educator, pacifist, and social activist. Throughout her career in all of these areas, her work has focused on issues of Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Her singing and writing repertoire includes...
, John Stewart, Eric Andersen
Eric Andersen
Eric Andersen is an American singer-songwriter.-Biography:In the early 1960s, Eric Andersen was part of the Greenwich Village folk scene in New York...
, Al Stewart
Al Stewart
Al Stewart is a Scottish singer-songwriter and folk-rock musician.Stewart came to stardom as part of the British folk revival in the 1960s and 1970s, and developed his own unique style of combining folk-rock songs with delicately woven tales of the great characters and events from history.He is...
, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, and women’s music pioneer Holly Near
Holly Near
Holly Near is an American singer-songwriter, actress, teacher, and activist for social change.-Early years:...
, international performers Johnny Clegg (South Africa), Tommy Sands
Tommy Sands
Tommy Adrian Sands is an American pop music singer and actor.-Early life:Born into a musical family in Chicago, Illinois, Sands' father was a pianist and his mother a big-band singer. While still young, he moved with his family to Shreveport, Louisiana...
(Northern Ireland), Aoife Clancy (Ireland) and Dick Gaughan
Dick Gaughan
Richard Peter Gaughan usually known as Dick Gaughan is a Scottish musician, singer, and songwriter, particularly of folk and social protest songs.-Early years:...
(Scotland), and by a younger generation of musicians, many with sociopolitical leanings, that includes John Wesley Harding
John Wesley Harding
John Wesley Harding may refer to:* John Wesley Harding , a 1967 Bob Dylan album* John Wesley Harding , the title track of this album* John Wesley Harding , English singer...
, Kim and Reggie Harris
Kim and Reggie Harris
Kim and Reggie Harris are two vibrant, superbly talented and engaging performers whose captivating stage presence has inspired audiences around the world for over 25 years....
, Angel Band, Christine Lavin
Christine Lavin
Christine Lavin is a New York City-based singer-songwriter and promoter of contemporary folk music. She has recorded numerous solo albums, and has also recorded with other female folk artists under the name Four Bitchin' Babes...
, Tim Eriksen
Tim Eriksen
Tim Eriksen is an American musician, musicologist, and professor. He is the leader of the band Cordelia's Dad, a solo artist, and was a performer and consultant for the award-winning soundtrack of the film Cold Mountain.-Cordelia's Dad:...
and Lizzie West
Lizzie West
Lizzie West is a singer/songwriter. Her music can be described as a blend of many genres including country, folk, blues, pop, and rock. Her band is called "Lizzie West and the White Buffalo," the "White Buffalo" referring to her co-producer and boyfriend, Anthony Kieraldo...
. Among the guest artists who have participated in Appleseed releases are Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
, Joan Baez
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
, Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Lynn Raitt is an American blues singer-songwriter and a renowned slide guitar player. During the 1970s, Raitt released a series of acclaimed roots-influenced albums which incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk and country, but she is perhaps best known for her more commercially...
, Steve Earle
Steve Earle
Stephen Fain "Steve" Earle is an American singer-songwriter known for his rock and Texas Country as well as his political views. He is also a producer, author, a political activist, and an actor, and has written and directed a play....
, Ani DiFranco
Ani DiFranco
Ani DiFranco is an American Grammy Award-winning singer, guitarist, poet, and songwriter. She has released more than 20 albums, and is widely considered a feminist icon.-Biography:...
, Wyclef Jean
Wyclef Jean
Wyclef Jean is a Haitian musician, record producer, and politician. At age nine, Jean moved to the United States with his family and has spent much of his life in the country...
, Jon Bon Jovi
Jon Bon Jovi
Jon Bon Jovi is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and actor, best known as the founder, occasional rhythm guitarist, and lead singer of rock band Bon Jovi, which was named after him...
, and Billy Bragg
Billy Bragg
Stephen William Bragg , better known as Billy Bragg, is an English alternative rock musician and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, and his lyrics mostly deal with political or romantic themes...
.
Pete Seeger tribute CDs
In 1997, for Appleseed’s first major project, Musselman approached numerous wellknown musicians and other creative artists (writer Studs TerkelStuds Terkel
Louis "Studs" Terkel was an American author, historian, actor, and broadcaster. He received the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1985 for The Good War, and is best remembered for his oral histories of common Americans, and for hosting a long-running radio show in Chicago.-Early...
, actor/writer/director/musician Tim Robbins
Tim Robbins
Timothy Francis "Tim" Robbins is an American actor, screenwriter, director, producer, activist and musician. He is the former longtime partner of actress Susan Sarandon...
) with a request to each record a song written, adapted or performed by Pete Seeger for a tribute album to highlight Seeger’s musical contributions and his tradition of mixing songs and political activism. The resultant 1998 2-CD Where Have All the Flowers Gone: The Songs of Pete Seeger, included 37 newly recorded versions of Seeger-related songs by Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne
Jackson Browne
Jackson Browne is an American singer-songwriter and musician who has sold over 17 million albums in the United States alone....
& Joan Baez, Judy Collins
Judy Collins
Judith Marjorie "Judy" Collins is an American singer and songwriter, known for her eclectic tastes in the material she records ; and for her social activism. She is an alumna of the University of Colorado.-Musical career:Collins was born and raised in Seattle, Washington...
, Terkel, Robbins, DiFranco and many others. The release won the American Federation of Independent Music Award as the “Top Independent Release of 1998,” and the duet by Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt on “Kisses Sweeter than Wine” was nominated for a 1999 Grammy as “Best Pop Collaboration.”
From Musselman’s list of fourteen suggested Seeger songs to cover for the Seeger tribute, Springsteen recorded six songs and submitted his version of the traditional African-American spiritual/modern civil rights anthem “We Shall Overcome
We Shall Overcome
"We Shall Overcome" is a protest song that became a key anthem of the African-American Civil Rights Movement . The title and structure of the song are derived from an early gospel song by African-American composer Charles Albert Tindley...
” for the compilation. Years after its inclusion, Springsteen’s version of the song was used by NBC-TV news as the soundtrack to a video montage of self-sacrifice and suffering in New York City in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, broadcast nightly for a week. Grieving families also played the song for comfort in the wake of the 1999 Columbine High School massacre. Springsteen later reused the track and some of the other songs Musselman had suggested) for his own 2006 CD release, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions
We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions
-Personnel:* Bruce Springsteen – lead vocals, guitar, harmonica, B-3 organ, and percussion* Sam Bardfeld – violin* Art Baron – tuba* Frank Bruno – guitar* Jeremy Chatzky – upright bass* Mark Clifford – banjo...
.
The title song of Where Have All the Flowers Gone, recorded by Irish singers Tommy Sands and Dolores Keane
Dolores Keane
Dolores Keane is an Irish folk singer and occasional actress. She was a founding member of the successful group De Dannan, and has since embarked on a very successful solo career, establishing herself as one of the most loved interpreters of Irish song.-Background:Keane was born in a small village...
, “The Cellist of Sarajevo” Vedran Smailovic
Vedran Smailovic
Vedran Smailović , known as the "Cellist of Sarajevo", is a musician from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and a former cellist in the Sarajevo String Quartet....
, and a chorus of Catholic and Protestant Irish school children, was played daily outside the peace negotiations between Northern Ireland and England and was described by Minister of Parliament John Hume as “a vital bridge of hope and healing between the two sides.”
Appleseed issued a second multi-artist Seeger tribute, If I Had a Song: The Songs of Pete Seeger, Vol. 2, in 2001, and a final two-volume set in 2003, Seeds: The Songs of Pete Seeger, Vol. 3. The latter title was nominated for a “Best Traditional Folk Recording” Grammy award, and both releases also helped generate money for charitable and activist organizations. Seeds also contained an updated version of the Vietnam-era protest, “Bring Them Home,” recorded by Seeger, Bragg, DiFranco and Earle, on the day of the US invasion of Iraq with additional lyrics by Musselman. Springsteen later added some lyrics of his own and included the song in his live performances, TV appearances, and on the live CD/DVD from a Seeger Sessions tour.
Some of the profits generated by Appleseed’s three Seeger tributes were donated to the environmental Hudson River Sloop Clearwater
Hudson River Sloop Clearwater
The Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc. is an organization based in Beacon, New York that seeks to protect the Hudson River and surrounding wetlands and waterways through advocacy and public education...
organization to clean up New York’s Hudson and to help support Sing Out!
Sing Out!
Sing Out! is a quarterly journal of folk music and folk songs that has been published since May 1950.-Background:Sing Out! is the primary publication of the tax exempt, not-for-profit, educational corporation of the same name...
magazine. Seeger was one of the founders of both Clearwater and the folk periodical.
In 2007, Appleseed worked with the Give Us Your Poor organization at UMass Boston to release Give Us Your Poor
Give Us Your Poor
Give US Your Poor is a compilation album of 19 tracks by Bruce Springsteen & Pete Seeger, Jon Bon Jovi, Madeleine Peyroux, Bonnie Raitt, and other stars, many in collaboration with currently or formerly homeless musicians on benefit CD to fight homelessness....
, another multi-artist CD designed to raise funds and public awareness about the rising crisis of homelessness in America. Among its exclusive tracks was the first-ever collaboration of Bruce Springsteen and Pete Seeger, performing together on the song “Hobo’s Lullaby.”
“Heritage” artists
Many formerly high-profile musicians from the Sixties and Seventies have had their first studio recordings in years, sometimes decades, released on the Appleseed label. The worldwide icon of the spirit of the Sixties, Donovan, came to Appleseed to release his first CD in eight years, 2004’s Beat CafeBeat Cafe
Beat Cafe is the twenty-third studio album, and twenty-eighth album overall, from Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. It is his first collection containing newly written songs since his 1996 album Sutras. Beat Cafe was released worldwide on August 24, 2004...
. Tom Rush, one of the first artists to record songs by Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
, Jackson Browne and James Taylor
James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000....
, returned to the recording studio for the first time in 35 years and emerged with What I Know, his Appleseed debut, which was subsequently named 2009 “Album of the Year” by the International Folk Alliance organization, based on airplay. The multi-instrumental folk/blues/bluegrass/roots musician and vocalist David Bromberg had retired from recording in 1990 before cutting Try Me One More Time for Appleseed in 2007; the CD was nominated for a “Best Traditional Folk Album” Grammy. The Native American singer/songwriter/artist/activist Buffy Sainte-Marie released Running for the Drum
Running For The Drum
Running For The Drum is the fifteenth studio album by Buffy Sainte-Marie, released in 2008. One of Sainte-Marie's more successful albums, it went to number one in the Canadian charts and spawned one single with No No Keshagesh...
, her first new CD in 13 years, on Appleseed in 2009. Jesse Winchester, another well-established performer from the Sixties, hadn’t released a new studio album in ten years before 2009’s Love Filling Station was issued by Appleseed. His CD was named one of the year’s best by VH1’s Bill Flanagan on the CBS Sunday Morning television show, who described the CD as “delicate, powerful and moving. . . perfect music for sitting in front of the fire on a cold night.”
Historical releases
Some of the label’s other releases were intended to keep important traditional music alive, such as Kim and Reggie Harris’s Steal Away: Songs of the Underground RailroadSongs of the underground railroad
Songs of the Underground Railroad reflect that music has always been important in the heritage of African people. This music can relay a story or bring people together in a common cause. In the slavery era, songs may have conveyed coded meanings to help bring the slaves to freedom...
and Get On Board: Underground Railroad & Civil Rights Freedom Songs, Vol. 2, which have been used as teaching tools by various black history museums and schools. In 2000, Appleseed released two discs of “field recordings” of traditional American folk songs collected by Anne and Frank Warner on trips down the Eastern Seaboard starting in 1938, Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still and Nothing Seems Better to Me: The Music of Frank Proffitt
Frank Proffitt
Frank Proffitt was an Appalachian old time banjoist and performer at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival. He was a key figure in inspiring musicians of the 1960s and 1970s to play the banjo. He recorded the ballad "Tom Dooley", learned from his aunt Nancy Prather...
and North Carolina. Their recordings included authentic, unvarnished versions of songs such as “Tom Dooley
Tom Dooley
Tom Dooley or Thomas Dooley may refer to:* Tom Dula, American legend hanged in North Carolina after the Civil War**Tom Dooley , American folksong based upon the above incident...
,” “Whiskey in the Jar
Whiskey in the Jar
"Whiskey in the Jar" is a famous Irish traditional song, set in the southern mountains of Ireland, with specific mention of counties Cork and Kerry, as well as Fenit, a village in county Kerry. It is about a Rapparee , who is betrayed by his wife or lover, and is one of the most widely performed...
,” and “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands,” which became folk staples through Frank Warner’s performances and songbooks decades before these historic recordings were finally released through Appleseed. Spain in My Heart: Songs of the Spanish Civil War is another multi-artist compilation released by Appleseed and features an international cast of musicians, including Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Davy Guthrie is an American folk singer. Like his father, Woody Guthrie, Arlo often sings songs of protest against social injustice...
and Pete Seeger, Mexico’s Lila Downs
Lila Downs
Lila Downs is a Mexican singer-songwriter. She performs her own compositions as well as tapping into Mexican traditional and popular music...
, Nicaragua’s Guardabarranco duo, and Ireland’s Aoife Clancy and Shay Black.
To celebrate its ten-year anniversary in 2007, Appleseed issued Sowing the Seeds – The 10th Anniversary, a two-CD sampler of catalogue highlights that also included exclusive new recordings by Pete Seeger & Bruce Springsteen (a second historic second collaboration), Donovan, Ani DiFranco, Kim and Reggie Harris, and several more new Pete tracks.
In early 2009, Appleseed won its first Grammy – for “Best Traditional Folk Recording” for Pete Seeger’s 2008 At 89 release.
Label’s mission
As a longtime activist who worked with consumer advocate Ralph NaderRalph Nader
Ralph Nader is an American political activist, as well as an author, lecturer, and attorney. Areas of particular concern to Nader include consumer protection, humanitarianism, environmentalism, and democratic government....
to champion various safety and environmental causes, including the mandatory installation of airbags in motor vehicles, Musselman finds great satisfaction in combining his commitment to social justice with his passion for music: “I started [Appleseed] because I had seen a void in music tied to social justice and social change, and also seen people not recording folk songs anymore . . . . I wanted to put out music with a message of hope and healing and to record these folk songs . . . . and we were in danger of them being lost forever. . . . I think music can reach people in ways that other mediums can’t. Music touches an emotional chord in someone and tends to speak to people in a lot of ways. . . . Music can break down walls and build bridges between people with different political and social views.”
The UK music magazine Uncut has confirmed that Musselman’s vision is a successful one: “Despite its weighty mission statement – “to explore the roots and branches of folk and world music and sow the seeds of social justice through music,” no less – the Appleseed label is no over-worthy do-gooder. . . . It has spread the word to free-thinking bohemians and quietly built a roster that includes such legends as Pete Seeger, Roger McGuinn, Donovan and Tom Paxton. . . . In keeping the folk fires burning, Appleseed does it with vim, vision and a heap of imagination.”