Clearwater Festival celebrates its roots in the life of Pete Seeger

By ADAM C. UZIALKO
Staff Writer

The 40th annual New Jersey Clearwater Festival will have at its heart a day of remembrance and celebration of the men who started it all — Pete Seeger and Bob Killian.

Presented by the New Jersey Friends of Clearwater, the free Clearwater Festival will take place at Brookdale Community College on Sept. 12.

The next day a concert and celebration of the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater founder, the late Pete Seeger, will take place at the nearby Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Monmouth County in Lincroft. Seeger died last year at the age of 94.

The story of how Seeger’s New Yorkbased environmental nonprofit, Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, expanded into New Jersey is rooted in the early 1970s, when the iconic folk-singer/songwriter was using his influence to defend the most precious natural resource the planet has to offer: water.

Killian was, by his own admission, something of a hippie — archetypal long hair, bushy beard and all — when he first met Seeger in 1973.

Killian accepted an invitation to travel with the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, sailing up and down the river in the boat the group was named for, selling pumpkins to raise money for the environmental group’s endeavors, as well as to connect the nearby residents with the river itself.

“It was the second pumpkin sale [the group held,]” Killian said in an interview. “We sold these pumpkins in towns along the river to get people to see it as a vital resource.”

Killian signed on to sail for just one day, but was offered a longer-term spot by a volunteer who had to back out. He took it, perhaps altering the course of his life.

One night during the trip, while Killian was on watch to make sure that no one cut the lines and set the boat adrift — he said there was much antipathy toward Seeger and the Clearwater crew back then — he began to write a song based on the sea shanties he heard during his travels with the group. “Once I got home I finished the song and sent it to Pete,” Killian said, not sure if the folk singer would even respond. But sure enough he did, and it turned out Seeger loved the song so much that he invited Killian up to his home in Beacon, N. Y., to help work on an album.

“He lived in this log cabin he had built himself on eight acres right by Breakneck Ridge on the Hudson River,” Killian said. “He grew up wealthy … in a privileged household, but he had elected to live modestly and simply.”

Seeger and his wife, Toshi, allowed Killian to stay in a room attached to the barn. When the album was finished, Seeger had another proposition for Killian.

“He wanted to start a Hudson River Shad Sale,” Killian said.

Much like the pumpkin sale, it would be intended to raise money for the Clearwater group, as well as awareness of how important and viable a resource the river was.

“I didn’t know anything about [organizing] that sort of thing … but this had been such a phenomenal experience … that I decided to do it,” Killian said.

Using Seeger’s files, Killian called up celebrities, musicians and media professionals to see if they would be interested in participating in such a festival. It all came together quickly when he explained to them it was Seeger’s brainchild.

“The first festival was in Harlem, in front of the Apollo Theater,” Killian said. “We marched from the Apollo to the Hudson, where the Clearwater was docked.”

Volunteers then sold fresh caught shad to the entourage that had followed them to the water’s edge, a celebration that Killian called “an amazing experience.” The Hudson River Sloop Clearwater Inc. repeated this sort of procession again and again in New York towns along the Hudson River with great success.

“The Hudson River Clearwater Revival Festival was born,” Killian said. Not long after, Killian left Seeger’s home in Beacon and set out on a tour of his own, playing folk music all across the country.

Originally from Linden, it wasn’t long before Killian ended up back in his home state for a benefit show at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Lincroft. He would be staying with a friend who lived in Little Silver, with no idea that the town was near his family’s former vacation spot of Ocean Grove.

“I just felt like something was bringing me back here, and I didn’t know what it was,” Killian said.

Following the show, a local minister approached Killian, asking why nobody had bothered to start a Clearwater effort in Monmouth County.

“Lord knows that water needs attention,” Killian recalled the minister saying to him. It took him a while to get the hint, but eventually it hit him.

“I thought, ‘okay, I guess I’m supposed to do it,’” he said.

Killian found a job working at Brookdale Community College as an artist in residence to pay the bills. He kept going back to the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Monmouth County, where he met a group of people dedicated to the values and ideals that Clearwater represented.

One of those members, Dr. Robert Turner, was working with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at Fort Hancock in Sandy Hook and invited Killian out to see his laboratory.

“After that, I took a look around Fort Hancock … and I had a vision of a festival right there in that spot along Officers’ Row,” Killian said.

“The timing was perfect. [The administrator] had been told to find a way to bring the public out in an organized way, so they could see the resource that was available out there.”

The group was then the host to an American crafts festival, which would form the bedrock of the New Jersey Clearwater Festival for years to come. That first year, Killian said only a dozen people showed up for an acoustic set, some food and companionship.

Then, the next year, they secured a stage and a sound system, attracting about 100 people. That number grew to about 500 the following year. Eventually, the festival was bringing in about 15,000 people, according to Killian.

“Somebody just needed to start it and keep it going long enough for it to catch on,” he said. “I just happened to be crazy enough to do it.”

Today, the group is the host to educational programs for students, both in schools and on the boat, teaching them about the interconnectedness of the environment and waterways.

Killian moved to Florida in 1999, but is making his way up to his birth state for the festival.

“I feel very proud of it,” Killian said. “I also know how much it takes, and there are some very dedicated volunteers that make it happen.

“People are so dedicated to the idea. I changed and augmented what I learned from Pete, but he dedicated his life to building a community where people would take active control in order to have a better life.”

Brookdale Community College will serve as the host to the 40th annual New Jersey Clearwater Festival on Saturday, Sept. 12. The festival is free and open to the public. The event will include environmental exhibits, music in a range of styles, food vendors, crafts and children’s activities.

The following day, Sept. 13, at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation, 1475 W. Front St., Killian and the Hudson River Sloop Singers will honor Pete Seeger. with a concert at 3 p.m. called “Pete’s Gang” featuring an open mic. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for children under 12. For more information visit http://www.mcclearwater.org/festival.php or UUCMC.org.