When I mention folk music to any non-folky, it immediately creates two thoughts to that person:
We all lost Mary Travers yesterday (September 16, 2009), apparently as a result of complications from chemotherapy. She announced two years ago she had Leukemia. Sadly, the bone marrow transplant worked and she was in remission. The same disease took Steve Goodman (City of New Orleans and Dying Cub Fan's Last Request). I'm so terribly sad.
She was part of a seminal group. Like the Kingston Trio, PP&M popularized real folk music and encouraged gifted songwriters. PP&M always had a political agenda, but it was never hidden, never mean and always inclusive. Many of us agree with and support the politics, the philosophy and the duty to humanity to this day.
But it was the music that got us.
I don't know about you, but I could go to a zillion churches, synagogues and mosques. I could ooh and ahh at the architecture and obvious reverence. But they never, ever filled me with any sense of spirituality or connection with others.
I found that in song circles, open mikes, concerts and sharing riffs with other players. I also got it when I was doing a Folk Music radio show in suburban Chicago for a few years and got to ask Noel Paul Stookey some questions (as well as quite a few more musicians of considerably more talent and technique that I have. And they all shared and continue to share. Mary Travers was part of that tradition. And much of her and her partner's music is spiritual- at least to me.
We will never hear Mary's kind and knowing song poem to her young daughter- her sultry voice in Noel Stookey's Comic Racing Routine (Peter Paul & Mary, In Concert album), her deft harmonies or her belting one out of the park with her superb instrument... live. At least we have the recordings, the PBS specials and documentaries. We are also comforted by Peter and Noel's statements on the PP&M website. But we're losing the performers, writers and singers we love. Just recently, we've lost:
I'm a proud fan. I am sad we lost her. But I think I'd rather celebrate her artistry and her life. And help keep her music alive.
- Kumbaya- The African rendering of a Lutheran Hymn taken from missionaries and 'folk processed' back to the English speaking world. Its simplicity made it a huge hit during the Folk Scare of the 60s and has boomeranged to be an example of a bad song at a bad time. In the class of Dominque by the Singing Nun or Chop Suey by whatever his name was. If you aren't old enough to remember those, how about Yummy, Yummy, I Got Love in My Tummy or Winchester Cathedral, or anything by The Archies? Us cool 60s and 70s DJs called them "Bubblegum."
- Peter Paul and Mary (PP&M)- like the Kingston Trio, this seminal trio popularized roots music (See That My Grave is Kept Clean and Three Ravens come immediately to my mind), Singer-Song Writers (They had the hit of Bob Dylan's Blowin' In The Wind and introduced us to Tom Paxton [Marvelous Toy and Yuppies In the Sky] and to Canadian Gordon Lightfoot- after fellow Canadians Ian and Sylvia grabbed some of Gordy's Gold (the trio covered Early Morning Rain), their own writing (Peter Yarrow wrote Puff The Magic Dragon and Day is Done, Noel Paul Stookey wrote the legendary Wedding Song and Right Field and Mary got a co-writer credit for Come and Go with Me).
We all lost Mary Travers yesterday (September 16, 2009), apparently as a result of complications from chemotherapy. She announced two years ago she had Leukemia. Sadly, the bone marrow transplant worked and she was in remission. The same disease took Steve Goodman (City of New Orleans and Dying Cub Fan's Last Request). I'm so terribly sad.
She was part of a seminal group. Like the Kingston Trio, PP&M popularized real folk music and encouraged gifted songwriters. PP&M always had a political agenda, but it was never hidden, never mean and always inclusive. Many of us agree with and support the politics, the philosophy and the duty to humanity to this day.
But it was the music that got us.
I don't know about you, but I could go to a zillion churches, synagogues and mosques. I could ooh and ahh at the architecture and obvious reverence. But they never, ever filled me with any sense of spirituality or connection with others.
I found that in song circles, open mikes, concerts and sharing riffs with other players. I also got it when I was doing a Folk Music radio show in suburban Chicago for a few years and got to ask Noel Paul Stookey some questions (as well as quite a few more musicians of considerably more talent and technique that I have. And they all shared and continue to share. Mary Travers was part of that tradition. And much of her and her partner's music is spiritual- at least to me.
We will never hear Mary's kind and knowing song poem to her young daughter- her sultry voice in Noel Stookey's Comic Racing Routine (Peter Paul & Mary, In Concert album), her deft harmonies or her belting one out of the park with her superb instrument... live. At least we have the recordings, the PBS specials and documentaries. We are also comforted by Peter and Noel's statements on the PP&M website. But we're losing the performers, writers and singers we love. Just recently, we've lost:
- Mary Travers
- John Stewart (part of the second Kingston Trio and a wonderful singer songwriter)
- Erik Darling (Filled Pete Seeger's slot when Seeger quit The Weavers, Leader of the Trio which had the first Banana Boat Song hit in the late 50s and the leader of the Rooftop Singers [Walk Right In]) and whose Child, Child album I listen to every month or so to get new and fresh ideas I can steal....um Folk Process...for my own band)
- Travis Edmonson (the Travis of Bud & Travis)
I'm a proud fan. I am sad we lost her. But I think I'd rather celebrate her artistry and her life. And help keep her music alive.
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