Celebrating 50 Years of Peter, Paul and Mary, Grammy® Award- Winners Peter Yarrow and (Noel) Paul Stookey are carrying on the tradition and legacy of their famed 1960’s folk group Peter, Paul and Mary. They will perform at The Ridgefield Playhouse on Friday, September 21, at 8 p.m. Without their beloved Mary, Peter and Paul perform as a duo, singing many of the group’s classic hits including “If I Had a Hammer”, “Blowin’ in the Wind”, “Puff (The Magic Dragon)”, “I Dig Rock & Roll Music” and “Leaving on a Jet Plane”, whose melodies and lyrics so defined a generation. Peter, Paul and Mary were an American folk-singing trio whose nearly 50-year career began when they became a paradigm for 1960s folk music. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in memory of Mary Travers. This event is part of the Doyle Coffin Architecture Singer/Songwriter Series.
No American folk group has lasted longer or amassed a more loyal following than Peter, Paul and Mary. During its now legendary career, the trio won five Grammy® Awards, produced 13 Top 40 hits, of which six ascended into the Top 10 and earned eight Gold and five Platinum albums. That Peter, Paul and Mary achieved such a rarefied level of commercial success, while continuing a centuries-old tradition of people raising their voices in song for the sake of freedom, is further evidence of their extraordinarily powerful career.
In 2006, Peter, Paul and Mary received the latest in a long line of honors: The Songwriters Hall Of Fame's Lifetime Achievement Award (also known as the Sammy Cahn Award) in recognition of their mastery of topical songs. "The songs we sing invite the participation of the listener, who is central to finding a way of creating the life of the song at that listening," Peter Yarrow explains. "It's the difference between poetry and didactic writing. One tells you, 'This is it,' and the other says, 'Let's find this together.'" Stookey adds, "Whether it's your own material or somebody else's material, it's essential that you identify with it thoroughly. It's like you want to archive it; you want to freeze it in time in terms of your perspective on it, then move on, because folk music is that volatile and comments not only on overall human concerns but also on the specifics."
In 2004 Carry It On, the trio’s CD, and an accompanying PBS TV special focused plenty of attention on the music of Peter, Paul and Mary, but the following year Mary Travers' health moved front and center. She underwent a successful bone marrow transplant for leukemia in April 2005. That December, Travers joined Peter and Paul on stage for the first time in a year to perform their renowned Holiday Celebration benefit concert at Carnegie Hall. Today, Peter and Paul pay tribute to Mary, and audiences, both old and new, are eager to hear their timeless tunes in a contemporary context.
For tickets ($75), call the box office at 203-438-5795. For more information on The Ridgefield Playhouse, visit ridgefieldplayhouse.org. The Ridgefield Playhouse is a not-for-profit performing arts center located at 80 East Ridge, parallel to Main Street, Ridgefield, CT.