"When I saw Pete Seeger playing the banjo it completely changed my life, " Connolly tells CNN.

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The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, all kitted out in Aran sweaters knitted by Mrs Clancy, triumphantly rode the wave of a folk revival that was turning Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie into stars.

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Later, through his radio broadcasts in the 1940s, Lomax helped bring wide exposure to such American folk icons as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, and continued making field recordings throughout the Caribbean, Ireland, Scotland and Spain.

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Guthrie wrote the song in 1940, in the hall of the Oklahoma City Communist Party, and it was performed, by Guthrie and Pete Seeger, for a group of striking oil workers the night it was written, according to The Nation.

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And I started playing the 12-string guitar after really hearing Pete Seeger play and recording things like "Tambourine Man" with Jim McGuinn(ph), Roger McGuinn(ph), and so this guitar - I'm so glad you asked about this guitar because this is patterned after a D-40, a Martin D-35 that I played for years, and it's my signature Judy Collins Martin guitar.

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He also enlists banjo-playing brothers Pete and Mike Seeger and picks up inspired support from The Chieftains' Paddy Moloney, jazz vibraphonist Stefon Harris and his own son, drummer Joachim Cooder.

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