On Relevance

My connection to Peter, Paul and Mary goes back as far as I can remember – er, almost remember. We all have a few very distinct childhood memories that are not actually our memories. Rather, we have heard the story so many times that we convince ourselves that we do, in fact, remember the moment. One of mine is a Peter, Paul and Mary memory. At the end of a concert in 1990, Mary blew me a kiss goodnight. How I wish I could actually remember that moment. I was pretty tuckered out. I had been sleeping (my earliest experience with theater snoozies) and I don’t remember the kiss. But I do have a memory of the days and weeks following the concert. I wanted to be Mary Travers. I distinctly recall belting “Leaving On A Jet Plane” out in the backyard. Probably not fully understanding the lyrics, but understanding just enough to feel the power of the song. 

Fast forward to my college years and a very specific thought popped into my head, “I am definitely the only person in this lecture hall getting pumped for the Zoology 100 final by listening to Peter, Paul and Mary on my iPod.” Those other kids did not know what they were missing. 

Though I was not around for their peak in the 1960’s, I was lucky enough to grow up listening to their music and attending their concerts. It will not surprise you that I literally jumped at the chance to see Peter Yarrow and Noel Paul Stookey perform together at Hoyt Sherman Place. In fact, I arrived so early at Hoyt Sherman to buy tickets that the employee thought I was there for a meeting with a department head. 

Yarrow and Stookey, both 80 years old, may not be the baby-faced youngsters they were in the early 60s when they broke onto the Greenwich Village scene, but even with less hair on their heads they can still sing, play the guitar and command the attention of a sold out crowd. The concert, filled with their biggest hits, was truly a celebration. 

The energy in the theater was palpable from the very first strains of "Weave Me the Sunshine." When again will we have the opportunity to come together to celebrate and carry on the legacy of Peter, Paul and Mary and share our appreciation for them in person? The concert may have had some rambling interludes and the stage just didn’t feel quite whole without Travers’ powerful alto but the concert was a much-needed confirmation of the importance of music as an agent of change. Songs such as “Deportee,” “This Land is Your Land” and “Where Have All the Flowers Gone” feel equally appropriate as a glimpse into the past as they do a call for a brighter future. These songs should be songs of times gone by, but, instead, they are almost more relevant today. Joining with 1,200 people on that rainy December evening to accompany Yarrow and Stookey on “Leaving On A Jet Plane” and “If I Had a Hammer” was life affirming. Folk music reminds us that no matter how different we are, we share more than we realize. We can grow, we can change, we can make the world a better place. Music will bring us together and show us the way.