Name: Peter Yarrow & Noel Paul Stookey
Start: 2024-11-14T21:00:00-04:00
Location: The Cabot

Peter, Paul and Mary arrived on the scene in Greenwich Village in the early 1960’s and at the time, for the majority of America, folk was viewed merely as a sidebar to pop music. The nation was still recovering from the McCarthy era and the Cold War was heating up. Peter Yarrow, Noel (Paul) Stookey and Mary Travers came together to reclaim folk’s potency as a social, cultural and political force. The Trio lived their songs. They sang at the 1963 March on Washington where Dr. Martin Luther King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech, they participated in the Selma to Montgomery March, they sang at countless anti-Vietnam War rallies and they launched decades of musical activism. These individual and collective efforts addressed a wide range of issues from women’s rights, to farm-worker rights to the environment and education.
No American folk group lasted longer or amassed a more loyal following than Peter, Paul and Mary. During their legendary career, the trio won five Grammy’s, produced 13 top 40 hits of which six ascended into the top 10, and earned eight gold and five platinum albums.
The group’s message is that their music belongs to everyone. “People can overcome their differences, and when united, move toward a world of greater fairness and justice,” says Yarrow.
The loss of Mary Travers in September of 2009 was a loss to her family, friends and the nation. Her life and legacy remain a great American treasure.
PBS recently released a new documentary of their lives titled “50 Years with Peter, Paul and Mary”. The program features powerful, moving, performances by the Trio starting with the era of the group’s emergence in Greenwich Village through the Civil Rights and anti-war eras where their anthems provided America’s soundtrack of social and political change, and moving into the 21st century where their legacy and music continues to inform, inspire and enrich successive generations – still providing a moral compass for the way we live our lives. Also r released recently is a stunning book of photographs and reminiscences, in their own words, “Peter, Paul and Mary: Fifty Years in Music and Life”.
Peter and Noel continue to perform together as well as individually, and to devote their time and energy to issues they believe in. Peter founded the organization Operation Respect which is a non-profit education and advocacy organization dedicated to transforming schools, camps and other youth-serving organizations into safer, more respectful, bully-free environments for children and youth. and Noel’s organization Music2Life creates music based programs, events and promotions to move hearts and minds around a particular effort or cause.
When Peter and Noel perform together, audiences comment that in many ways it feels as if Mary were still on the stage with them. The energy and enthusiasm for the music has not diminished, in fact it seems ever more impassioned, and frequently the audience steps in to sing Mary’s part–their voices strong, their hearts full. It’s community at its best and what folk music is all about–carrying it on.