They’ve Still Got Cause to Sing

Peter, Paul & Mary is arguably the most popular group to emerge from the 1960s folk scene.

Mixing traditional songs, originals and covers, the harmony-laden trio brought folk music to mainstream pop audiences with a dozen Top 40 hits, including Pete Seeger’s “If I Had a Hammer,” Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” and Peter Yarrow and Leonard Lipton’s “Puff, the Magic Dragon.”

Success, however, is no guarantee for lasting respect. Some see them today as fading folkies whose ongoing commitment to numerous sociopolitical causes can make them seem like outmoded idealists. The trio begins a two-night stand tonight at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts.

Noel “Paul” Stookey acknowledged the negative perception in a telephone interview from his home in Northfield, Mass. Yet the singer-songwriter-guitarist thinks there is merit in their steadfastness.

“Even though you don’t recognize it right away, there’s a hidden kind of value to being vulnerable,” Stookey suggested. “Peter, Paul & Mary could be viewed as corny by some people because we sing about affairs of the heart, soul and spirit. Those have never been considered cool things to talk about.

“And yet, if we’ve been able to unlock the reticence and provide an opportunity for dialogue, then we’ll have served a purpose.”

It’s somewhat ironic, he said, that what has sustained Peter, Paul & Mary over the past 37 years--including a seven-year break to pursue solo careers--is the group’s cross-generational appeal.

“Having fans that range from babes-in-arms to 90-year-olds, we have the chance to reacquaint any number of generations with the thread of commonality that runs through the folk music tradition,” he said. “Songs that kids once thought were silly or stupid--like ‘Puff, the Magic Dragon’--can be sung without them feeling [silly] because they now understand this song is speaking on another level.”

Peter, Paul & Mary’s latest two-CD effort, “Around the Campfire,” is an attempt to bring a contemporary edge to 25 classic folk songs, including “Kumbaya,” “This Land Is Your Land” and “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” The trio is joined on vocals during four tracks by the New York City Labor Chorus and children from various public schools in the New York area.

Bridging the gap between performer and audience is a trademark of Peter, Paul & Mary.

“The songs that endure are the ones that strike a common chord among people, and ‘Around the Campfire’ certainly was put together for that very reason,” Stookey said. “If you look at the listing of the songs, we chose them not because they were commercially successful, but because people can relate to them. . . . Many have sung them as part of some shared group experience.”

“Plus,” he said, “they kept families sane on long road trips.”

Stookey, Peter Yarrow and Mary Travers--each of whom turned 60 this year--made their debut in 1961 at the Bitter End coffeehouse in Greenwich Village. The trio’s 1962 self-titled debut album stayed on Billboard’s Top 100 for 3 1/2 years. The group soon gained notoriety as activist folkies by participating in the civil rights and antiwar movements of the era.

Over the years, the group supported a variety of social and political causes, ranging from bringing awareness of human rights violations in South Africa and Central America, to fighting for workers’ rights, to ending world hunger and global warming.

Their recent causes include the anti-firearms movement in public schools; the political campaign of public advocate Mark Green, who lost in the recent Democratic Senate primary in New York; and the controversial case of Dianna Ortiz, the nun still seeking justice for her rape and torture in Guatemala nearly 10 years ago.

“It’s truly the ugly side of politics,” sighed Stookey, who blasted U.S. involvement in Central America 13 years ago in his song “El Salvador.” “We just lined up a benefit concert in New Jersey for Sister Ortiz. We want to draw attention not only to her personal situation, but to the U.S.’s continued political manipulation of other countries, which has become less military and more habitual.”

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It was social activism that reunited the threesome in 1978, after pursuing solo careers. Yarrow, helping to organize an anti-nuclear weapons benefit at the Hollywood Bowl, invited Stookey and Travers to perform with him. They accepted, all felt the spark, and the trio decided to reform indefinitely, albeit in a redefined capacity.

“We kinda took seven years off for good behavior,” Stookey said, chuckling. “I think we realized that there will always be a cause or reason for us to be together. . . . Deep down, we really do care for the same things. Now, instead of doing 200 concerts a year, we do maybe 50, and that’s very healthy. It gives each of us a personal life and provides some perspective.”

Stookey said the pure enjoyment of singing together offers a special charge.

“What the three of us can bring to an event, whether it’s fighting a common foe or singing ‘If I Had a Hammer’ under a tent with a bunch of 16-year-olds, to realize that it’s their song now. . . . That’s something I’d never have [achieved] as a solo artist.”

* Peter, Paul & Mary perform tonight and Saturday at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, 12700 Center Court Drive. 8 p.m. $37-$62. (800) 300-4345 or (562) 916-8500.