Mary Travers—remnant of the 50s, 60s
by Craig Wilson, The Saratogian
Bittersweet, adj.- 1. something being at once bitter and sweet; pleasant but including or marked by elements of suffering or regret. 2. A Mary Travers concert.
The America of the 50s and 60s with its protests, folk songs and coffee houses is gone. But there are a few remnants of that era left, folk singer Mary Travers being one.
And although she gave a professional performance Monday night at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, there was a prevailing mood during the concert that she was a performer whose time had passed.
Still sporting her long, stringy blonde hair and bangs and still going through her body contortions when she sang, Mary didn’t seem the same without Peter and Paul.
Unfortunately for this fan, the concert brought back memories of college days when the trio drew a crowd of 45,000; “Leaving on a Jet Plane” was at the top of the charts and the trio’s enthusiasm brought them running onto the stage, hand in hand, to the cheers of their fans.
Mary still runs onto the stage, sort of, and she sang “Leaving ona Jet,” but the spirit seemed to be gone from the classical “500 Miles” and “Too Much of Nothin’.”
Unfortunately, the concert did not succeed in being an era revival performance like rock and roll concerts. There were too many parts missing, namely Peter, Paul and a large crowd, to bring out a revival mood.
Mary did earn an encore, and for it she sang one of Peter, Paul and Mary’s biggest hits, “Blowin in the Wind,” which she said was “just a classic, like me.”
She did sing some non-trio songs, branching out into Neil Diamond and Neil Sedaka, but the crowd almost seemed masochistic about her repertoire, wishing she’d sing more of the classic folk hits and then being sorry she did. She did not sing the all-time biggest hit from years gone by, “Puff the Magic Dragon.”
The small crowd, which included everyone from teeny boppers to grandparents, listened to Glenn Yarbrough and the Limeliters before Mary came on. The group sang a medley of folk songs and joked, rather unsuccessfully, about how famous they used to be.
One of the major regrets of the evening was that Glenn Yarbrough did not perform as the major singer of the group, singing only one song, and not one of his hits, by himself.
For those going to the concert in hopes of kindling fond memories of an era passed, they were sadly disappointed.
As is with most good times, they cannot be relived.
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