Legendary folk singers honor one of their own at Wolf Trap

Peter, Paul and Mary were the conscience of their generation, writing and performing songs in the folk idiom to guide people through tumultuous times and instill the concepts of love and peace. Fifty years, five Grammy Awards and 14 albums later, their music and philosophies live on. This week Peter and Paul will appear in concert at Wolf Trap to celebrate their friendship with Mary, who is recuperating from cancer.

Noel Paul Stookey, spokesman for the trio, promises that Mary will make future appearances, perhaps not singing, but certainly to acknowledge the support she receives from fans.

“This is such a new phenomenon performing without Mary, but we carry into it the belief that the audience will join with us and sing the lead in her signature song, ‘Leaving on a Jet Plane,’ and others as well,” he says.

Like Peter Yarrow, whose songs tackle social issues worldwide, Stookey has devoted his life to a broad range of concepts that redefine life and illustrate commonalities among all people. In addition to recording and performing with the trio, he is a childhood education activist producing multimedia materials that enable teachers to show their students the need to understand many points of view.

“Music opens the heart and head,” he says. “In the rush to leave no child behind, schools have ignored the arts and the importance of teaching respect for others, civility, tolerance, the value of reading, listening and learning in solitude and the realization of how bleak life is without community.

“The health debate today requires humility, tolerance and patience. This is a work in progress and it’s helpful that President Obama has abstained from inserting specifics until the representatives in Washington discuss and consider all sides. He articulates well and has the wisdom of consideration, using the tried and true method of taking turns.”

Stookey and his wife, a school chaplain, reside in Maine, where his studio occupies the site of a former chicken coop. There he composes, records and produces works that express his reliance on faith, family life and social concerns. “Facets,” the title number of his most recent album, carries the theme that our lives are connected like the facets of a jewel. As one of the key performers during the 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington and the Selma-Montgomery March, he has watched people connect through the years and now shares the joy minorities are experiencing since the election of President Barack Obama.

“Everyone needs a job or a circumstance where they feel worthwhile and have hope,” he says. “Man’s connection to the divine is love, not the name of a specific religious leader. Right now I hear a song in my head that might be played on a guitar.”

The few lines he sings describe the soul as “the airplane hangar of the heart.” What a fitting close for the concert honoring Mary.