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Folk Music Icon Noel Paul Stookey, with Kevin Roth in Concert
We’ll have our own party
Noel Paul Stookey
Noel Paul Stookey (the Paul of ’60s pop-folk hitmakers Peter, Paul, and Mary) did not get invited to the recent inauguration, despite his Washington credentials. Back in 1963, he helped lead the quarter-million strong March on Washington crowd by singing “Blowin’ in the Wind.” The snub was no surprise, considering his more recent accomplishments including the song “Impeachable,” the last time the White House had its current tenant. Today, at 87, Noel is one of the remaining musicians (along with Bob Dylan and Joan Baez) that shared the stage with Rev. Martin Luther King that day long ago. This month, Noel is going to share some of his songs and stories reaching back across those 60+ years, in Rancho Bernardo. There’s a lot of ground to cover!
A really big show
Noel will share the stage with Point Loma resident Kevin Roth, who has a long musical relationship with Noel, and some pretty impressive credentials of his own. You can read our 2019 profile of Noel here, and our 2018 profile of Kevin here. This is part of San Diego Folk Heritage’s Old Folkies series (not to be confused with Old Fogies; our name, not theirs :), which also includes the Limeliters on March 8 and James Lee Stanley on March 15. If you have fond memories of the 1960s intersection of folk music and social awareness, or if you’re just curious as to what that looked and sounded like, this will be a great opportunity.
Expect the February show to include a solo set featuring Kevin’s rich voice, deft dulcimer work, and songs, ranging from deep to hilarious. He and Noel are working up some duets, which should be very interesting. And Noel will have his opportunity to shine as a solo artist. “With the recent death of my partner Peter [Yarrow], I feel more responsibility to bring more of his and the trio’s songs to my concert situations, whereas in the past I’ve included “Puff the Magic Dragon,” “Blowin’ in the Wind,” and “If I Had a Hammer,” I expect I’ll be adding songs that more directly salute him like “Weave Me in the Sunshine.”
We assume the Fun Police, threatened in Noel’s recent eponymous song, will NOT be permitted in the hall.
No storm can shake my inmost calm
While to that rock I’m clinging
Since love is lord of Heaven and earth
How can I keep from singing?
—from “How Can I Keep from Singing,” Noel Paul Stookey
Noel these days
Noel is very active, very eloquent, and still very relevant. In the time since that last Troubadour article, he’s released multiple albums, and continued his mission of making the world a better place, while doing occasional shows and splitting his time between his home base in Maine and his winter retreat in Ojai. He is still partners with Betty, the gal he wed in 1963 and still balancing his life between private and public, his pursuits between personal and spiritual, and his music between entertainment and social activism.
Stookey with Peter Yarrow in concert.
I recently caught up with him while he was sitting shiva for Peter Yarrow, his longtime friend and collaborator who passed in January 2025 (following Mary Travers in 2009), and we had a follow-up as he headed west for Ojai. Besides providing a respite from Maine winters, Ojai gives him and Betty access to family in LA. The property does not boast a three-story henhouse/music studio like his East Coast property; in the age-old musician tradition, Noel has learned that a garage makes a perfectly adequate rehearsal space.
Noel’s energy and enthusiasm are inspiring. “I usually see two productive alternatives to drowning in despair,” he grins.” “One, if you see a flaw in the system, address the elephant in the room, sometimes directly but sometimes humorously by pointing out the presumption of the ‘emperor with no clothes.’ And two, share your vision of the higher calling, in most cases it’s Love (with a capital L).”
If you’d like to spend a little more time listening to Noel talk about what’s important to him, here’s a video.
Kevin these days
Kevin Roth
Kevin Roth has also been busy since his last Troubadour article, releasing several albums: Dulcimer Dreamland for Kids, Deviant Dulcimerist, and most recently The Inside Job. He also wrote a book Between the Notes, a practical guide to find your inner groove and dance to a beat that makes your heart sing, which is getting great reviews on Amazon.
“These days, I continue to compose, record, and occasionally give concerts.” (See him play Templars Hall a year ago.) “I am filming a documentary about my career, the dulcimer, and becoming a unique life coach after my ordeal with a death sentence. I now teach others how to handle feeling stuck, stressed, finding a purpose for their life, and how to have more fun. Especially during these times when the world is crazy….’
They hung my abstracts upside down and no one seemed to mind
White wine and hors d’oeuvres were served as I watched them stand in line
‘Interesting abstractions’ I heard some critic claim
‘I hear that the artist is here tonight—what the hell’s his name?’
There’s nothing like an opening to close an ego’s door
I make a buck here and there I’ve done this all before
These abstract portraits of my life will hang on strangers’ walls
Pleased am I to know in fact that anyone really cared at all
—from “The Gallery” by Kevin Roth
“Lastly, I created something called DULCIMEDITATION, which helps you relax and find clarity. This requires no musical background.” Since the mountain dulcimer is typically tuned to an open chord, with frets on a pentatonic scale, the dulcimeditator can simply slowly pick or strum notes on the melody string, allowing the sounds to soothe and calm, like a lullaby.
Noel says, “I was delighted he let me help him create the REAWAKENING album where his songs and the dulcimer became the central focus of a multi-MIDI extravaganza. Michael McInnis, an East Coast keyboard mastermind, surrounded Kevin’s vocal and performance with a variety of musical enhancements that always—as is the nature of folk—embraced and enhanced the message of each song.” Listen to Noel expound on this.
Let’s get together
As Dr. King said in his famous speech, “We can not walk alone,” here’s a chance to get together with a room full of people in our community, share some music and Love and laughs, and collect a little inspiration and energy for whatever’s coming around the bend.
We’re a raggle-taggle army—got no uniform or guns
Still we been called by coincidence so maybe we’re the ones
To take this revolution to the street.
Smile at every solitary person that we meet.
We’re gonna wave at total strangers no matter where they’re from.
Gonna start a revolution… gonna win it one by one.
—From “Revolution (1×1)” by Noel Paul Stookey
Noel Paul Stookey, with special guest Kevin Roth
Sunday, February 23, 4pm (doors 3:15pm)
$35 public, $25 SDFH members
San Diego Oasis
17170 Bernardo Center Drive, San Diego 92128
