I grew up as a folkie. Lots of people in our bushwalking club were also folkies, so we had serious singing around the campfire as well as going along to many ceilidhs and festivals. The voice of Mary Travers was one of our icons.
“Lemon Tree” was one of the songs Dad used to sing to get my sister to sleep (can’t find it by PPM on YouTube). The harmonies of Peter, Paul and Mary were deceptively simple, allowing one to enjoy just the melody or the complexity of the arrangement as one preferred. And “Where Have All The Flowers Gone” was one of our all time favourites – so melancholy, beautiful and meaningful.
Travers was always a political activist, and used her voice to highlight issues in a way that no-one else could match. Sleep well, sister.
Categories: arts & entertainment, history
Friday Hoyden: Margaret of Anjou 
Shakespeare in Australia 
Talk like a pirate day Friday Hoyden: Sayyida al Hurra 
Letters to Tiptree: what does it mean to “write like a man”? 
Hoyden About Town 
It was Puff that I most fondly remember and the kids and grandkid in my life have loved it too…as a variation (in a minor key) on the of Pachelbel’s Canon it’s a no-brainer to play with your head turned backwards to watch dancing toddlers. It’s possibly one of the most-loved and perrenial kid’s songs of the last half century.
I’m not a folk music fan at all, but PPM, some Dylan, and Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice” still pop into my head at odd times.
I don’t know of anyone, of any age during 60s, who didn’t have a soft spot for at least a couple of PPM songs.
If there’s an Elysium, Mary Travers is by the sea with autumn mists.