BONUS TRACKS: Remembering Peter Yarrow; L.A. Fires; and Other Music News

This week’s Bonus Tracks begins with a reflection on an evening last summer with Peter Yarrow, who died this week on Jan. 7, at the age of 86. Yarrow was best-known as part of Peter, Paul and Mary, one of the defining folk music groups of Greenwich Village’s 1960s folk revival. Though Mary Travers died in 2009, he and Noel Paul Stookey (“Paul”) still performed together a few times a year. Last summer, as part of my research for my print story for the No Depression 2024 Fall Journal about Stookey’s new hybrid instrument (the manulenjo) I spent the evening in Terrytown, NY at one of their shows.

I first encountered Yarrow during sound check, which Yarrow ran with a meticulous, exacting precision unlike anything I’ve seen (and I’ve seen my fair share of sound checks). So intense was Yarrow’s focus and vision for the sound he wanted for the evening, that I found myself tiptoeing around as I took photos for the story, afraid to interfere. Yet as soon as the job was done, Yarrow relaxed. Backstage, he took my outstretched hand in his to kiss it in greeting, joking readily with me. His focus and dedication to each moment was exceptional. Later that evening, he would miraculously hold the audience wrapped through an indulgent, long rendition of “My Bucket’s Got a Hole in It.” That he pulled it off was proof of a rare artistic acuity.

As Stookey wrote in a short remembrance to Yarrow on his Substack, Yarrow was “creative, irrepressible, spontaneous,” and “politically astute and emotionally vulnerable.” Each side of him I saw that evening confirmed Stookey’s summation.

Of all the moments from that evening I’ve turned over in my head since Yarrow’s death, the ones I turn to repeatedly are those in which Stookey and Yarrow joined a roomful of strangers together from the stage. Uniting the audience in song, they drew our hopes and fears onto common ground, elevating the moment beyond the feeling of attending a concert and into something transcendent. Below is an excerpt from my story in No Depression’s Fall 2024 Journal. In it, I and the rest of the audience spontaneously rose to our feet, filtering out into the aisle to dance and sing along.

Reunited for the concert in Tarrytown, Stookey and Yarrow inhabit well-worn roles onstage. Stookey is goofy and dramatic, hamming for the audience with exaggerated frowns and off-the-cuff jokes. He also gently steadies Yarrow (who is also 86) and helps him settle his guitar strap over his shoulders, waiting patiently when Yarrow speaks about the myriad of world events weighing heavily on seemingly everyone in the room.

As they begin to lead the audience through Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin,” Yarrow tells the audience that when the trio formed in the 1960s, singing this song gave them the strength to believe that the ills of the world could heal. Although the progress they fought for appears to unravel nearly every day, the audience sings along to every line. As the song nears its end, Yarrow and Stookey let the audience carry the tune, and begin to harmonize. Yarrow leans into the microphone: “I believe you,” he says. “We will make it so.”

To continue to believe that a shattered world can piece itself together requires the wellspring of hope that Stookey (and Yarrow and Travers) carried for more than half a century. Near the end of the concert, Stookey and Yarrow lift the audience to their feet to sing Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land,” filling the theater with hundreds of voices as the crowd sways and claps along, releasing themselves from seating rows to dance in the aisles. “This land is your land, this land is my land, and as Mary used to say, ‘it still is!’” Stookey reminds them.

Perched on stools a half turn toward each other, Stookey and Yarrow often sing at each other as much as to the theater, and they can’t help smiling. Fiercely connected to each other and their audience, they draw the room in around them for one final song, “Blowing in the Wind,” which the trio first performed at the March on Washington in 1963. Seated again, the audience sings along softly and as one. Yarrow blesses the moment: “This is a prayer as we sing it; this is an affirmation; this is an act of love.”

In this broken world, may we all let loose and dance in the aisles as often as possible.

OTHER MUSIC NEWS

L.A. Fires

The fires in Los Angeles have devastated thousands, including many in the music community. If you’re looking for was to help, this Google Doc has a good compilation of resources and also people looking for direct assistance.

Antone’s Night Club Turns 50

Austin’s storied nightclub is 50 years old this year. Celebrations will include: a limited-edition boxed set of long-lost and new materials released by New West Records; anniversary performances at the club as well as Lincoln Center, SXSW, and the Austin Blues Festival; and the establishment of a blues museum upstairs at the venue. Watch a trailer for the celebrations here.

WHAT WE’RE LISTENING TO

Muscadine Bloodline — “Ain’t For Sale,”

Ringo Star — Look Up

Sports Team – “Bang Bang Bang”

Sister Sadie — “If I Don’t Have You”