Sonya Cohen Cramer (1965-2015), the singular vocalist, graphic designer, and art director is being honored again with the new track “When I Was Most Beautiful,” ahead of the first-ever collection dedicated fully to her music, You’ve Been a Friend to Me, releasing on May 17 via Smithsonian Folkways.
Sonya Cohen Cramer was raised in a family committed to revitalizing the oldest songs of the American musical canon. Like her father John Cohen of The New Lost City Ramblers and her mother Penny Seeger, she believed in the transformative qualities of folk songs and traditional ballads. She has collaborated with her aunt Peggy Seeger, uncle Pete Seeger, Elizabeth Mitchell, Daniel Littleton, and the folk-fusion group Last Forever. She was the granddaughter of musicologist Charles Seeger and the avant-garde composer Ruth Crawford Seeger, and her godfather was Folkways founder Moe Asch. While shaped by the roots of her family tree, the radiating and clear sound of Cramer’s voice is distinctly her own.
Known mainly for her graphic design work for Folkways, her musicianship during her time in the New York Times-acclaimed folk band Last Forever (featuring composer and producer Dick Connette) was admired by the likes of Jeff Buckley, Loudon Wainwright III, Meredith Monk, and Joe Boyd. The upcoming project reveals her life as both a familial and mission symbol of the Folkways ethos, committed to revitalizing the oldest songs of Folkways Records and the American musical canon.
“When I Was Most Beautiful” incorporates lyrics from a poem Pete Seeger found while on tour in Japan in 1967 and got permission to record in the 60s for Columbia Records. Seeger accompanies Sonya on guitar for this version. The two performed this anti-war tune together at the Library of Congress in 2007.
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