This afternoon, I found myself driving over the Appalachian Plateau towards Chattanooga, my two daughters in tow, listening to Pete Seeger sing kids songs. It just doesn't get much better than that.

Seeger, in my opinion, doesn't get the recognition he deserves, as a sterling musician, as a heart-rending singer, as a song collector and as a political bellwether.

Consider the following facts:

* It was Seeger more than anyone who brought folk songs to the masses, via his immensely popular group The Weavers.
* Seeger, though hunted by Joseph McCarthy and all the other red-haters, gave up no names to save himself in those troubled times.
* He wrote "Turn, Turn, Turn", "If I Had a Hammer" and many others, and popularized the use of the folk song "We Shall Overcome" by the Civil Rights movement.
* He championed Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and other cultural touchstones

Now, he wasn't always right; he was too naive about the atrocities perpetrated by Joseph Stalin, and, on a much more superficial level, he refused to see the power and beauty of new forms of music (like Dylan gone electric), thus isolating himself.

But to me, Seeger belongs in that category of fierce American voices who are important as musicians, historians and poets, such as Dylan, Cash and Springsteen. It's a very short list.

And oh, could he sing! Seeger's lilting tenor is among the greatest American voices, soulful and nuanced and incredibly expansive.

Listening to his 1962 children's record (Pete Seeger's Children's Concert, which my children adore, by the way), I realized that Seeger saw the segmentation and alienation of the American people back then. He saw the disconnect that would lead us to spiritual, political and environmental crises. And he did the most important thing a man can do: he fought to make his voice heard, to adults, to children, and to history.

Conservation is about more than just the environment. It should be about keeping alive all those parts of our world and culture that have some good in them. That's what Pete Seeger's life has been about. I hope he has some more of it in him.

For more about Pete Seeger, visit www.peteseeger.net