Tao Rodriguez-Seeger

Tao Seeger Band Biography
Music is in his blood. Fusing the folk styles of his family heritage with contemporary Rock-n-Roll, Tao Rodriguez-Seeger’s music breaks all barriers of traditional folk bringing a unique and distinctive sound to the table.
Born into a musical family in Poughkeepsie, New York, Tao is the eldest grandchild of folk singer Pete Seeger. Tao spent his childhood in Nicaragua where his father was a war correspondent, making documentary films about the Sandinista revolution. With little access to pop music in Nicaragua, Tao cherished his AC/DC and Metallica cassettes along with the two tapes he had of his grandfather’s music. Here began the merging of rock and folk music that would come to influence Tao in his musical career.
After nine years in Nicaragua, Tao returned to the United States and moved into the home of his grandparents, Pete and Toshi Seeger. Listening to his grandfather perform, Tao became frustrated with his grandfather’s poor Spanish singing skills and approached him. The legendary Seeger turned the criticism around saying, “Well if it’s so bad, why don’t you help me out?” In 1986, a teenaged Tao joined his Grandpa Pete at a Hiroshima Day rally in front of an audience of more than half a million people in Japan for their first concert together. Thus began the musical partnership between Tao and Pete that would take them around the world together.
Tao was the co-founder of the folk/rock groups RIG (Rodriguez/Irion/Guthrie), The Mammals and is the founding member of his new band the Tao Rodriguez-Seeger Band. The Tao Rodriguez-Seeger Band includes Tao singing lead vocals, playing electric guitar and banjo, Laura Cortese on fiddle and vocals, Jake Silver on bass, Jason Crosby on keyboards and Robin MacMillan on drums. Their music can be described as a fusion of rock and folk with a “rootsy and psychedelic” sound. The newly formed band has performed at an impressive lineup of events including the 2009 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Newport Folk Festival and The Clearwater Concert: Creating the Next Generation of Environmental Leaders at Madison Square Garden where they stood in as the evening’s house band. Together they have also toured throughout the northeast and Denmark. In September the Tao Rodriguez-Seeger Band will head west to perform at the Monterey Jazz Festival and then hit the road for an east coast tour in late 2009. Their debut album Rise and Bloom is currently wrapping up in the studio and is expecting an early 2010 release.
This year has been a monumental year in Tao’s musical career filled with extraordinary experiences. In January he performed at the Presidential Inauguration for Barack Obama alongside Bruce Springsteen and Pete in front of over 1.5 million people. An exciting day but the chilling temperature proved to be too much for his guitar, which cracked during their inaugural performance. However, Tao will always consider it his lucky guitar because the President Elect took the time to sign it, “This Land Is Your Land – Barack Obama.” His May performance at Madison Square Garden was filmed for the PBS series Great Performances and will be made into a DVD that will be released later this year. Recently Tao was approached by Sesame Street to write and record two original songs for Plaza Sesamo, the Spanish edition of Sesame Street, and star in their music videos. His work will debut on Plaza Sesamo in an episode later this year. In 2007 Tao was featured in the Emmy winning documentary film, Pete Seeger - The Power of Song, where he performed at Carnegie Hall with Arlo Guthrie in his annual Thanksgiving concert.