Folk legend Yarrow performs in Newtown May 22
http://www.newstimes.com/music/article/Folk-legend-Yarrow-performs-in-Newtown-May-22-485644.php
Eileen FitzGerald
May 13, 2010
Peter Yarrow has made his voice a vehicle -- to spread the sounds of
folk music, to protest the war in Vietnam, and to encourage kids to
be kind. And the words of the most familiar songs he's written, and
of those he's performed with Peter, Paul and Mary, are etched in
hearts around the world.
Yarrow brings his songs and guitar to Newtown May 22 as a guest at
the season finale of the Flagpole Radio Cafe at Edmond Town Hall Theatre.
"Singing is an experience in openness and vulnerability --
vulnerability in a positive sense,'' Yarrow said in a phone interview
recently. "If we're not closed down, if there are no walls, it's very
meaningful."
Yarrow, Noel Paul Stookey, and the late Mary Travers began their
collaboration in New York City's Greenwich Village in the 1960s. Much
of their repertoire addressed the country's most pressing social
issues. They performed at some of the crucial moments in the
country's history, like Dr. Martin Luther King's March on Washington
and national war protests.
"It was an extraordinary time of dedication and community and
tenacity," said Yarrow, of the anti-war and social rallies in which
the trio joined. "We were fueled by a level of energy that was pretty
astonishing. For some of us, it's really never abated.''
Yarrow's appearance on the variety show produced by Newtown residents
Jim Allyn, Martin Blanco and Barbara Gaines concludes the second year
of the show that is inspired by National Public Radio's "Prairie Home
Companion" with Garrison Keillor. There are six shows a year in a
radio format with music, comedy and a rotating guest with a Connecticut flavor.
How did Yarrow wind up on that guest list? It started with Travers'
passing in September of 2009. Last fall, Blanco said they decided to
do a tribute to her for the October show because some staff had
authentic connections with Travers, who lived in Redding.
They reached out to Yarrow to see if he wanted to take part in the
show. Yarrow had a performance in Washington, D.C., the same night,
but suggested an on-stage phone call so he could talk about Travers
on the Newtown show.
When Yarrow's D.C. show went long and he missed the Newtown show, he
called that night to offer to make it up. Blanco suggested he come as
the guest, where he'll sing four or five songs and maybe perform with
the ensemble at the end.
"He's very generous to come on our show," Blanco said.
Peter, Paul and Mary won five Grammy Awards, produced 13 Top 40 hits,
of which six reached the Top 10 and eight gold and five platinum albums.
The group disbanded in 1970, and Yarrow continued writing songs,
produced three CBS television specials based on "Puff the Magic
Dragon," and remained politically active.
When he brought the trio together for an anti-nuclear benefit in
1978, the three resumed performing together and raising social
consciousness with their music.
Yarrow said performing in the months since Travers' death has been
difficult for him and for audiences.
"It isn't just sadness at all, it's an awareness and recognition that
what we shared and did together had a profound effect. I feel it now
from the audience that they are not taking this for granted, that the
gift we had and still continue to carry on is very precious to them,"
Yarrow said. "There is a greater regard for what folk music was, that
it moved all of us. There is a sense that it provides everyone, even
now, a sense of human connectedness around issues that bound us."
Yarrow and Stookey embarked on a summer tour May 8 that began in Hong
Kong. A new album released in March called "Peter, Paul and Mary With
Symphony Orchestra: The Prague Sessions" features 14 of the trio's
live performances recorded during the 1980s and '90s with the Czech
National Symphony Orchestra.
Much of Yarrow's energy in the past decade has been in promoting
Operation Respect, which he created in 2000. The program brings music
and conflict resolution curricula to schools to teach children how to
live without bullying and violence. Operation Respect also
disseminates its own educational program, Don't Laugh At Me, free of
charge through its sponsor, the McGraw-Hill companies.
Yarrow, 71, said Operation Respect is an example of how music can
connect people in profound ways. For instance, it's been introduced
to Israeli and Palestinian children.
"I think this can educate children in a way that gives them a
sensitivity to bias," he said.
He'd like schools to adjust their hyper focus on academia to a more
rounded and more thoughtful approach that could build a different set
of possibilities for the young.
"It could give them the capacity to be productive members of society,
instead of continuing the mean-spiritedness and heartache seen in
this culture -- especially the reality-based shows that can be so
humiliating," said Yarrow. He said such shows "demonstrate a loss of
a moral compass, and kids incorporate that in the cruelty of their teasing."
Among the awards Yarrow has received for his work to improve the
world, is the Allard K. Lowenstein Award in 1982, for his "remarkable
efforts in advancing the causes of human rights, peace and freedom."
In Connecticut, Yarrow serves on the board of directors of Connecticut Hospice.
"I think we do not need a change in policies ultimately,'' Yarrow
said. "We need a chance in hearts, a sensitisation to the issues for the kids."
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Contact Eileen FitzGerald at [email protected] or 203-731-3333.
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IF YOU GO
Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary
May 22, 7 p.m.
Edmond Town Hall Theatre, Newtown
Guest Artist at the Flagpole Radio Cafe
Tickets, $15.
Purchase online at www.newtownartscommission.org, click Flagpole
Radio Cafe link.
For further information, call 203-364-0898.
.
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