Music Features
Listen to Peter, Paul and Mary's The Prague Sessions
This week a new album from Peter, Paul and Mary hit store shelves, that chronicles the trio's frequent collaborations with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra during the '80s and '90s.
The Prague Sessions offers fresh takes on the group's classics, such as "Leaving On a Jet Plane," "Puff the Magic Dragon," and Bob Dylan's "Blowin' In The Wind." The recordings were culled from over 100 performances with the orchestra, and represent the concept of music director Robert De Cormier.
"We had these songs written for us that were pretty remarkable," Peter Yarrow said in an interview with Spinner. "No other arranger that I can think of has the capacity to unite folk music with orchestral music that doesn't feel idiomatic and synthetic."
What's more, Yarrow believes that while their voices may not have been as strong as in their heyday, they still possess strong qualities.
"I don't think they were as precise as the voices of the first decade, but we had better experience and better empathy in certain ways," Yarrow added. "But what is lost in our vocal abilities is made up for by a greater command of the actual spirit and sound we were making."
The album also honors the late Mary Travers, who died last year after battling leukemia. Fortunately, Yarrow was able to play the former member early mixes of the album tracks before her passing.
"She was wowed," Yarrow said. "She was so proud. She felt really strongly about was that she wanted the chapter of our musical history in Prague, the singing of these songs with orchestration. We only completed it shortly after her passing."
Additionally, the album closes with the appropriate "Adagio for Strings," which was played at Travers' memorial celebration upon her request.
Fans can listen to The Prague Sessions here.
Image used with permission by Michael Ochs Archives.
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