The raw sound of unadulterated American folk, as filtered through the sensibilities of a sophisticated college-educated audience, found a growing audience as the 1960s began. But to a large extent, it was a trio of folk singers formed in the scene’s New York mecca, Peter, Paul and Mary who sold folk to the widest possible audience. Their 1962 debut LP held on at the top of the album charts for 10 months and netted a slew of singles that were all over AM radio: “Lemon Tree,” “500 Miles,” “If I Had a Hammer” and “Where Have All the Flowers Gone.” A year later they struck gold again with an original song that permeated childhood for most anyone growing up at that time, “Puff, the Magic Dragon.”
They earned an important place in history for introducing Bob Dylan to mainstream America with their 1963 cover of “Blowin’ in the Wind,” which became the troubled era’s anthem of hope. In keeping with Peter, Paul and Mary’s commitment to social justice, they performed along with Dylan and Joan Baez at Martin Luther King Jr.’s “March on Washington” later that year.
Mary Travers died in 2009 but Peter Yarrow and Noel Paul Stookey have continued. The remnant of the history-making trio will perform Friday at the South Milwaukee Performing Arts Center. “It does tend to be Peter, Paul and Mary-centric,” Stookey says of their repertoire. He adds that their occasional tours are also opportunities to introduce newly written material. The “topics will run the full range from political to environmental statements,” he continues. “Peter’s latest [album] is called The Children Are Listening, which is a powerful commentary on how much of the current acerbic political discourse is observed and then modeled by kids in schools and on playgrounds—increasingly resulting in bullying or violence.”
After racking up nearly 20 songs that entered the Top-100 charts in the U.S., Peter, Paul and Mary disbanded in 1970—sort of. They continued to regroup for special events, usually benefit concerts. “We had lived 10 years of a quite demanding schedule—over 200 shows a year plus recording and TV appearances,” Stookey says. During the ’70s all three released solo albums, performed separately and found time to finally take some time off.
“We moved from New York City to the coast of Maine where we had livestock and a garden and learned so much about self-sufficient life styles: solar panels on the roof, raising ducks, chickens, sheep,” Stookey says of his wife and daughters. “I actually put an 8-track recording studio into the third floor of an abandoned henhouse and recorded several Maine artists and even did a talking book recording E.B. White, author of Charlotte’s Web, reading.”
Unlike many groups who grudgingly put aside old grievances for an opportunity to cash in on past fame, Peter, Paul and Mary fell back together more organically as a regularly touring and occasionally recording act. “It was 1978 that the call came from Peter and Mary asking if I would join them in an anti-nuke rally in California. I thought that was an important cause but didn’t realize that it would lead so swiftly to reuniting,” Stookey recalls. “We put out an album called Reunion after that and from there on out did 30-60 events per year that took into account that we had all agreed our personal lives needed tending.”
After Travers’ death, some suggested that Stookey and Yarrow find another female vocalist—preferably a Mary. “It was never a consideration. There’s no replacing Mary!” Stookey insists. “I think to face Mary’s loss publicly and not to try to dodge around it—to refer to it directly and in many instances compliment the audience as they sing Mary’s part—was an important part of defusing any ill will.”
Stookey’s musical interests began in a genre far removed from Peter, Paul and Mary. “I was a rhythm and blues wanna-be singer with my own group, The Birds of Paradise, in my Birmingham, Michigan high school. When I came to New York with my electric guitar it was only a matter of a year or so before I traded it for an acoustic nylon[-stringed] guitar.” The jazz scene attracted him, but “it was a surprise to find myself smitten more with folk music—its ethic and conversational accessibility. The lyric to me is everything and folk music is the only realm I know of that has such a wide embrace of subject material.”
Peter, Paul and Mary was purpose-assembled by Dylan’s manager Albert Grossman and was criticized, as Stookey recalls, for being “slick” and inauthentic. But singing like an Appalachian would have been “pretending and less authentic than finding the deeper meaning and message of the songs so that we might sing them honestly and contemporarily.” He adds that in the deepest sense rock, reggae and hip-hop are folk music “because it’s all about the addressing of community, not the musical style.”
Peter Yarrow and Noel Paul Stookey will perform on Friday, Oct. 26 at 7:30 p.m. at the South Milwaukee Performing Arts Center, 901 15th Ave., South Milwaukee. For tickets visit southmilwaukeepac.org.
