Pete Seeger 90 in Three Days

On Sunday, May 3, 2009 (three days from now), American folksinger, ecologist and humanitarian Pete Seeger turns 90. On November 29 this year, Canadian singer songwriter par excellence Stan Rogers would have turned 60.

A few months before Stan died in an airplane fire in 1983, Pete Seeger called him "one of the most talented singers and songwriters in North America." Peter Yarrow, of Peter, Paul and Mary, called him "an extraordinary talent, the likes of which we haven't seen since Bob Dylan."

Stan became a bard of English speaking Canada, with his North West Passage chosen by CBC listeners as a Second National Anthem. Stan's Francophone counterpart Gilles Vigneault is currently 80 (turns 81 on October 27). His song Mon Pays achieved comparable status Quebec.

In the lead up to Seeger's 90th, we've been looking at cross border songs on OVER THE FENCE. Today we look at these two bards north of the Canada-US border ...