Peter, Paul and Mary In Varied Performance

Carol R. Richards, The Ithaca Journal, July 23, 1968

Folk music, the rejected flower child of the hippie generation, is alive and thriving in Saratoga.

The “in” sound of the early 60s’, folk music has supposedly been replaced by psychedelic sound, new rock ‘n’ roll, but as personified by Peter, Paul and Mary Monday night. Folk music attracted the biggest crowd to attend Saratoga Performing Arts Center this season.

There were a phenomenal 12,000 people and 7,000 of them sat on the lawn despite threatening rain.

It was a mixed crowd too – ranging in age from teeny boppers to golden agers; the kids were generally a clean-cut sort, shirt-waisted mini dresses on the girls, white shorts and ties on the boys; and there were a few hippies too.

Once this famous folk trio got warmed up – sound system trouble marred the first few numbers – electricity that binds
the singers in performance spread into the audience.

The audience joined in singing and clapping during and after several of the songs.

Only a few of the familiar P, P & M numbers were sung – “soulin’,” “The Hour that the Ships Come In,” and “Jesus Met the Woman at the Well.” The big audience reaction came when the trio did its 1967 pop hit “I Dig Rock ‘N’ Roll Music” and swung into the folk protest numbers of the 1968 generation.

They sang anti-war songs and asked the audience to “spread a little love around” and to “give a damn” this summer – all keynotes of the psychedelic
generation.

Mary Travers, the long cool blond of the group was the focal point, visually and vocally, of most of the numbers, she dances and writhes as her low throaty voice wraps itself around the voices of Peter Yarrow and Paul Stookey. (Yarrow is a Cornellian and sang and played guitar at Ithaca night spots in the late 1950s.)

Paul, in a solo number, manages a few laughs with a sound effect routine called “Paul Talk.” Peter’s specialty is
leading the audience in harmonious sing-along.

While the group maintained its “folk sound” of clear voices backed up by non-electric guitar and bass, it has changed its approach enough to come through to the younger members of the audience without losing its appeal to the generation of folk lovers it originally inspired.