Pete Seeger wasn't a banjo master, but he played in combos with Woody Guthrie, Peggy and so on.

Back in the late 80s a friend of mine, a leading doctor at the local major hospital (reknowned internationally for cardiac and rheumatology research) used to hold a Monday night salon at his house where he held an open door for his patients and to anybody cool locally.

I was a good friend of his, and took along people (including the occasional premie) who were into complementary healing and music and suchlike. The point wasn't at all dogmatic - totally the converse. Just a melting pot of maybe interesting ideas concerning relaxation and healing stuff, anything inspiring or uplifting.

Barriers were broken down, or at least lowered, between people of greatly differing viewpoints. Good harmony was usually achieved with the aid of masses of decent wine, good conversation, music and generalised bonhomie.

Fairly influential guests used to drop in - Belfast peace women, for example.

Occasionally people used to fall down on the pavement too.

The evening I regretted missing was when Pete Seeger arrived. Apparently he or someone close to him suffered from arthritis, and he turned up.
What a major fuckup on my part to miss that particular evening.

On another occasion I took along a friend who had been into the folk music renaissance of the early 60's in London and Edinburgh, and who knew Ewan McColl well in earlier times (great fund of stories).

Yes, a great melting-pot. Quite a lot of visiting doctors took away possibly at least some amount of open-mindedness regarding complementary healing.
Nothing madly New Age, it must be added. No, just an impression that, while many great and important scientific advances were currently being made at the local hospital, there was some possible value also in investigating a more holistic approach towards illness and healing.