Margaret Frimoth will perform ‘If a Revolution Comes To My Country,’ a piece made popular by Pete Seeger, as well as ‘America The Beautiful.’

Is it the song or the singing?

Both, say those participating Saturday in the third Pete Seeger birthday tribute concert at the Charlene Larsen Center for the Performing Arts in Astoria.

Members of The Brownsmead Flats have been key contributors to the North Coast folk scene for decades.

The band includes Ray Räihälä, Dan Palenske-Sutherland, Ned Heavenrich, John Fenton and Larry Moore. They will perform “I’ll Fly Away,” “The Dutchman,” “Pastures of Plenty,” “Four Strong Winds” and “Ramblin’ Boy.”

Palenske-Sutherland will perform a solo called “The Garden Song” and Räihälä has selected his solo, “Across The Great Divide.” More than one song has that title. His version is by Kate Wolf, in an arrangement by Nanci Griffith, two folk powerhouses.

Singers in the ensemble backing up several songs will be Sharyn Hedbloom, Dinah Urell, Jane Hill, Veja Lahti, Nancy Logan, Josie Peper, Carrie Rubin and Mary Ann Ylipelto.

As North Coast musicians rehearsed for a tribute concert to late musician Pete Seeger, a moment was savored by a dozen souls. Its poignancy may resonate amid a masked audience at the Charlene Larsen Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday.

On the bare Astoria stage, radio retiree Joanne Rideout’s lower soprano voice shared “The Mary Ellen Carter,” a song about saving a sunken ship made popular by Canadian folk musician Stan Rogers. “Turn to, and put out all your strength of arm and heart and brain,” Rideout sang, eyes bright with intensity, “and like The Mary Ellen Carter, rise again.” Kit Ketcham’s alto voice pitched in and Jerry Middaugh’s baritone added weight as the chorus began. “Rise again, rise again, though your heart it be broken, or life about to end. No matter what you’ve lost, be it a home, a love, a friend, like The Mary Ellen Carter, rise again!”

One could imagine voices soaring through the auditorium, echoing those words, “rise again!” A graying member of the Brownsmead Flats appeared to wipe away a tear. For many in an older demographic that cannot risk their health, this will be the first opportunity to sing among dear friends after more than two years of pandemic precautions. Anticipation, even during a stop and start rehearsal with more microphones than melodies, was palpable.

“I just bellow that chorus: ‘Rise again!’” said Ketcham, an Astoria Unitarian minister who is coordinating the program with Middaugh. “We are hoping that everyone will sing that chorus: ‘Rise again!’”

Trilogy

The song is one within a lineup of more than a dozen pieces by performers from Clatsop County’s folk crowd, celebrating the joy of singing together. The series is also a fundraiser for the performing arts center. Rideout and Middaugh, who are partners offstage, perform as Perspicuity. Local group The Brownsmead Flats have been entertaining the region with folk and bluegrass enthusiasm for decades. A women’s choral ensemble will back up several songs.

It’s the third of a trilogy of Seeger themed folk concerts that Ketcham has helped to organize, though she insists credit must be shared with others, especially Jim Dott, whose clear voice has narrated all three. Joseph Stevenson, who helped to lead the past two shows, will return to perform two solo pieces.

Seeger was born May 3, 1919, and the trilogy of concerts have been timed to mark his birth date. A central artist in the peace focused international folk scene, Seeger died in 2014, leaving behind a legacy of music and environmental activism prompted by his polluted hometown along the Hudson River.

ReveredSince her retirement from news operations at Coast Community Radio, Rideout has continued with her “Ship Report” features. “The Mary Ellen Carter” is somewhat similar to another of her favorite songs, Gordon Lightfoot’s “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” which chronicles an ore ship lost on the Great Lakes.

Rideout laughed with maritime pride when asked about the lyrics and their meaning. “’The Mary Ellen Carter’ is about how to save a sunken boat,” she said. “It’s pretty darned accurate with things like ship raising technology. But it is also about, if in your own life you are sunk, like The Mary Ellen Carter, you can rise again.”

With Middaugh, she will sing “Miner’s Lullaby,” a song about a pit disaster. As narrator, Dott is preparing a gut punch explanation to one of the lyrics. Their other piece, “Hobo’s Lullaby,” a tune about boxcar travelers being hassled by police, is by Woody Guthrie, whose Northwest and labor organizing links are revered elements of the folk ethos.

Ketcham will join them, with Seaside’s Bob Lennon adding guitar accompaniment to perform “Oh, Had I a Golden Thread,” the song which provides the concert’s title. Its lyrics have significant meaning for the participants, wanting to connect but unable to perform together for so long because of the pandemic. “The ‘golden thread’ in our interpretation is music,” said Ketcham.

Voices

Lifetime activist Margaret Frimoth will perform two choices. “If a Revolution Comes To My Country” by Seeger touched her, as the daughter of a Portland pastor involved in 1960s‘ protests against the American War in Vietnam.

“There was a call for a revolution,” Frimoth said. “I was behind it. It made sense, the world was crazy.” She recalled Seeger’s voice. “I heard him sing it and it changed my brain. That’s what it’s all about,” she added.

‘A Golden Thread: The Legacy of Pete Seeger’

Charlene Larsen Center for the Performing Arts, 588 16th St., Astoria

Saturday at 7 p.m.

General admission is $17. Masks and social distancing required.

www.partnersforthepac.org.