Mary Ellin Travers is a well-known American singer and songwriter in the style of folk rock, performing as part of the group "Peter, Paul and Mary". Their popularity fell on the 60s, then the band broke up, but in 1978 the musicians gathered again and continued their joint work.
early years
Mary was born November 9, 1936 in the family of American journalists Robert Travers and Virginia Coini. In addition to the main activity, parents were active participants in the trade union movement of newspaper workers. The girl spent her first years in the city of Louisville - the largest community in Kentucky. The family then moved to the Greenwich Village area of New York. There Travers went to school, but in 11th grade she decided to complete her education and devote herself to creativity. She decided to become a singer and chose folk rock for her performances. Among the musical hangout of Greenwich Village, keen on this trend, Mary stood out markedly. She was one of the few whose childhood and youth passed on the outskirts of New York.
Carier start
Back in school years, Mary became a member of the team "The Song Swappers". The team acted as the opening act for the famous Pete Singer at performances in honor of the re-release of a collection of his hits. In 1955, "The Song Swappers" together with Sidge participated in the recording of 4 albums for the studio Folkways Records. Despite success, Travers regarded vocal performances as a hobby. Friends supported her when the singer decided to participate in the samples for one of the Broadway productions.
"Peter, Paul and Mary"
The band "Peter, Paul and Mary" was formed in 1961 and quickly gained popularity. In addition to Mary Travers, it included Peter Yarou and Paul Stookie. The team manager agreed to be Albert Grossman, who then worked with Bob Dylan. The band's musicians, together with Dylan, recorded a song from the album "Freewheelin '", which for several months entered the top 30 collections of America. The hit itself was for a long time in the top ten and 2 seasons in the top 20.
A year later, "Peter, Paul and Mary" released their first album. The debut turned out to be successful, especially if the hits "If I Had a Hammer" and "Lemon Tree" stood out. One of the songs brought the group a Grammy Award for a folk-style composition and best vocals. Together with the collective Mary five times became the owner of this prestigious musical award.
In 1963, two more collections were released: "Moving" and "In The Wind". The song "Puff (The Magic Dragon)" - a hit on lost innocence, many considered it as an ode to marijuana. She caused a storm of discussion in society, but this did not stop her from taking second place in the music charts. The collections also included several songs of 22-year-old Bob Dylan. Compositions firmly took their places in the top 10 and increased disk sales to 300 thousand copies. All three albums of the group in the same year entered the top six best-selling American collections, and the band's musicians were announced stars in the revival of folk.
The musical activity of the group was inextricably linked with active participation in the public and political life of the country. They demonstrated their civic position during mass events. The song "If I Had a Hammer" and today is considered the anthem of the fighters for the equality of all races. The musicians have contributed to the cause of protecting the rights of Americans with any skin color and condemned the hostilities in Vietnam. Fans of the group remembered the Washington protest march in 1963, where the musicians performed the song of a young civil rights activist Bob Dylan, supporting his work. The event was attended by more than half a million people.
Solo Projects
The musicians tried to diversify their repertoire with rock compositions, but not all experiments were successful. Ambitions among the members of the collective grew, everyone dreamed of their own musical biography. Like many musical groups of those years, the group "Peter, Paul and Mary" broke up.
So, in 1970, Mary Travers began an independent career. One after another, her 5 solo collections appeared, she performed a lot with concerts and lectures in the USA. Paul created his own band and devoted himself to Christian music. Peter received an Emmy Award for his television animated series. His song “Torn Between Two Lovers”, created for Mary McGregor under the influence of Boris Pasternak’s novel “Doctor Zhivago”, in 1977 climbed the highest rung of the national charts. But the individual success of each musician individually could not overshadow the fame of the collective.
Group reunion
The reason for the joint performance was a concert in honor of the reduction of the US nuclear program, organized in 1978. After the reunion, the group traveled around the country a lot and recorded several new albums. One of the records of the trio was directed against the apartheid regime in South Africa. Musicians collected donations for homeless citizens, and one of the concerts was dedicated to the development of public television. Two children's albums brought them another Grammy Award and return under the wing of Warner Bros Records. In the 90s, the group received several prestigious music awards and entered the Hall of Fame of musical ensembles. The final chord in the work of the team was the Lifetime Achievement award in 2006.
