Rhino Records - R.I.P. Mary Travers

R.I.P. Mary Travers

by John Hagelston

Mary Travers passed away on September 16 following a long battle with cancer. As a member of legendary folk trio Peter, Paul And Mary and through her solo work, Travers was a driving force in the folk music boom of the 1960s, and to the end remained a passionate “voice for those whose voices are stilled.” She was 72.

Born in Louisville, KY, Mary grew up in New York City’s Greenwich Village, which by the 1950s boasted a vibrant traditional music scene. As a teen, she recorded with folk group The Song Swappers and performed with such luminaries as Pete Seeger and Mort Sahl. But it was with fellow musicians Peter Yarrow and Noel “Paul” Stookey that Mary Travers would find enduring fame.

Peter, Paul And Mary were the right group at the right time. The “New Frontier” promised by the election of President John F. Kennedy challenged millions to ask what they could do for their country, echoing the pleas for social justice that had been the foundation of folk songs for decades. When Peter, Paul And Mary’s self-titled debut was released in 1962, it spent nearly ten months in the Top Ten. The next year at Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famed March On Washington, they sang “If I Had A Hammer,” making the trio icons of the Civil Rights movement.

But the secret to Peter, Paul And Mary’s success went far beyond simply staying in step with the right causes. All three were experienced singers whose voices blended perfectly, and Mary’s long blonde locks gave the group a visual focus that artists like The Kingston Trio lacked. And though PP & M could reinvigorate traditional songbooks like Woody Gutherie’s or The Weavers’, they also had great ears for new material -- whether self-composed like the 1963 hit “Puff The Magic Dragon,” or penned by up-and-coming songwriters like Bob Dylan (“Blowin’ In The Wind”), Gordon Lightfoot (“Early Mornin’ Rain”), and John Denver (“Leaving On A Jet Plane”).

Following a spectacular run of success in the 1960s, the three went their separate ways for a time in the 1970s. Mary recorded four solo albums, performed with symphonies, and helmed series for syndicated radio and the BBC. Through it all, her commitment to human rights remained undaunted, broadening to include campaigning on behalf of disenfranchised peoples around the world. By the 1980s, Travers had reunited with Yarrow and Stookey, and the trio shed light on injustices in El Salvador, Nicaragua, the Soviet Union, and South Africa as well as focusing attention on the plight of the homeless and migrant workers the United States.

Popular music can be a call to engagement as well as a source of diversion. From their first appearance at New York’s Bitter End coffeehouse until their final performance in May of this year, Peter, Paul And Mary rallied the troops to fight the good fight for almost half a century. Through her music and her life, Mary Travers will continue to inspire everyone who believes that liberty and justice belong to all.