For over fifty years, Mike Seeger has been a musician, documenter, and tireless advocate of American folk and traditional music. As a musician, he recorded as a solo artist and member of folk revival ensemble the New Lost City Ramblers. As a collector, he has captured and produced sounds by iconic artists such as Elizabeth Cotten and Dock Boggs. And finally, as a historian and preservationist of the music he calls "old-time," Mike Seeger gives us the stories behind the music that is such an essential part of American culture. In this video, he talks about the legacies and inspirations behind his 2007 Smithsonian Folkways Release: Early Southern Guitar Sounds.

Born in 1933 to parents Charles and Ruth Crawford Seeger, both prominent composers and ethnomusicologists at the vanguard of this emerging field, Mike was one of several children raised on a steady diet of folk traditions. Mike's siblings include sister Peggy Seeger and half-brother, Pete Seeger.