Pete Seeger gets a posthumous prize — and a sing-along

• Steve Martin was a surprise guest on banjo
• Night recalls Seeger%27s %27magical%27 power to get people to sing along
• Folk singers don%27t drive sports cars - unless the car belongs to Pete Seeger%27s son

NEW YORK — Pete Seeger would have loved the music, if not all the personal praise.

At a rousing Saturday night songfest staring Arlo Guthrie and surprise guest Steve Martin on the five-string banjo, Seeger, the singer/songwriter/activist who died last month at 94, was posthumously awarded the first Woody Guthrie Prize.

Named for Seeger's old pal, who taught him how to hop freight trains, the prize is for "artists who speak for the less fortunate and serve as forces for positive social change," says Deana McCloud, executive director of the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa.

When a committee chose the prize winner in December, "there was no debate at all," she says. "Pete was not only Woody's friend but stood for the common good, not for personal gain or to become a celebrity."

Rather than observe a moment of silence for Seeger, McCloud adds, "We wanted it to be a celebration — the kind Pete would enjoy."

That it was. Martin joined Arlo Guthrie (Woody's son) and banjo master Tony Trischka in leading a sold-out crowd at Symphony Space in Manhattan. They sang This Land Is Your Land (written by Woody Guthrie), If I Had a Hammer (written by Seeger) and Good Night Irene (popularized by Seeger as a member of The Weavers).

Martin, the actor, comedian and novelist, recalled how at 16 he wanted to learn how to play the banjo "but there was no place to do that in Orange County (Calif)." But he found a book: How to Play the Five-String Banjo by Pete Seeger.

To laughter, Martin added, "Unfortunately, I never bought another book." (Martin didn't mention that he went on to win three Grammys for his banjo playing.)

Martin also recalled how he met Seeger in 1967. Martin was then a 21-year-old writer for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour on CBS when it ended the blacklist of Seeger by commercial TV networks. Seeger sang Waist Deep in the Big Muddy, his anti-Vietnam War allegory, which caused a stir.

Arlo Guthrie recalled how Seeger had a "magical power" to prompt audiences to sing along, "just by waving his hand. And not just sing, but in four-part harmony."

Guthrie also told a story of how at 18, he saved $800 to buy his first car, a sports car "just like the one Elvis Presley drove in the movies."

But when he told his mother of his plan, she was shocked and told him: "Folk singers don't drive sport cars!"

He had the perfect rejoinder: He was buying the car from Pete Seeger, which "stopped her in her tracks." (He added that the car actually belonged to Seeger's son, Daniel, "but that was close enough.")

Woody Guthrie, who died in 1967 at the age of 55, performed with Seeger as part of the Almanac Singers, who were hounded and blacklisted for their left-wing politics and Communist sympathies. (Seeger quit the Communist Party in 1949, but said he remained a "small-c communist.")

On Saturday, Seeger's grandson, Kitama Cahill Jackson, accepted the prize, saying, "I feel Grandpa right now. I wish he was here, but I feel he is. ... He and Woody are looking at us."

Proceeds from the concert support the Woody Guthrie Center, a museum and archives that opened last May in a renovated warehouse in Tulsa, 75 miles from Guthrie's birthplace in Okemah, Okla. One of Seeger's last performances last year was at the Woody Guthrie Festival.