Yarrow: ‘Traveler’ show of unification
Peter Yarrow — the Peter of legendary folk artists Peter, Paul and Mary — sees a way to combat society’s divisiveness. A lot of ways, actually. They’ve been around for decades, and they’ll take the stage in Clermont this week.
Yarrow’s not-so-secret weapons to beat the cultural blues? America’s great folk songs.
Thursday night, the Clermont Performing Arts Center will host “Lonesome Traveler,” a touring theatrical concert of classics such as “Turn, Turn, Turn,” “This Land Is Your Land,” “This Little Light of Mine,” “We Shall Overcome,” “Michael, Row Your Boat Ashore” and many others.
“It’s a transformational concert,” says Yarrow, 79. “It’s the antithesis of the cloud that hangs over our country now. In this show, everyone’s united, everyone’s together.”
Yarrow joins the tour as a “special guest star” at certain performances, including the Clermont stop. Before he joined the cast, he was a fan.
Based in New York, Yarrow first saw “Lonesome Traveler” during its 2015 off-Broadway run at the 59E59 theater complex.
“I was in love with the show,” he recalls. “It was so beautiful that I called up friends, people who I love, and said ‘You must come.’ It brought me back to how it was — a time of passion and determination.”
Using the music of Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie and others, “Lonesome Traveler” focuses on the 1920s-’60s as it intersperses scripted narration about the country’s struggles and triumphs among the songs. “Celebrate the music that made history and the history that made music,” is how the show’s producers explain it.
Yarrow doesn’t use a script — after all, he lived through much of what the show is about. As a social activist, Yarrow has fought against racial discrimination, war and bullying. He helped organize the 1969 March on Washington and stood with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Ala.
“The marches on Washington, Selma and Montgomery become very, very real when we sing ‘Blowing in the Wind’ and ‘If I Had a Hammer,’ ” Yarrow says. “It’s very moving.”
He’s enjoying singing “Puff the Magic Dragon” and other songs he popularized with Paul Stookey and Mary Travers, who died in 2009.
“I think it’s a pity that this kind of music isn’t very prominent in the world of pop music,” he says. “Music is very commodified now by big business. It’s all about the bottom line.”
He’s confident the audience will leave refreshed in soul.
“For those who are weary, they will be less weary,” he says. “For those who are determined to see change, it will enrich their spirit.”