Customer Reviews

Peter Paul & Mary with Symphony Orchestra: The Prague Sessions

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A beautiful tribute to the memory of Mary Travers. A lovely album cover choice too with Mary obviously post diagnosis and treatment looking seemingly happy, cosy and content with her musical partners of almost 50 years. Such a fitting image. Peter, Paul and Mary had a wonderful association with Australia with concert tours, TV Specials and of course their album sales. My final memory of Mary and indeed Peter, Paul and Mary is an open air concert that was held near Bowral in the New South Wales Southern Highlands in December 1997. Mary was delighted and kept pointing during the performances at the wild kangaroos and wallabies bounding about in the surrounding fields. I still can't get used to the fact that Mary is gone. We are blessed by this well thought of and fitting release and the extraordinary, essential and important musical legacy of Peter, Paul and Mary.

I absolutely love this recording. It's both lovely and sad but truly a moving tribute and a great recording from three people whose music has shaped my life over the years. I grew up listening to Peter Paul and Mary. I heard them in concert the first time when I was in High School. A lot of years have passed since that first concert I went to but the memories never faded. The electricity when the houselights went down and the spotlight picked them up running to the stage and when they started to sing it was a life changing experience for me. I'd always loved the recordings and this latest recording being recorded from live performances captures some of that magic.

This album is the culmination of 50 years of dedication to a style of music, and an ideal that music can be a tool to express or hope and concerns, and facilitate change. What did the sixties bring us? That idea, and it's an idea that worked and continues to work. Governments can't ignore our wishes when they are expressed everyday in our art, music, and poetry, it's there in their face, on the radio and on T.V., at least it was, today we don't do that and look at the result! Greed and corruption has bankrupted this country and our voices are meaningless at best. Jefferson believed that we must always keep that radical spirit that drove the revolution so that the U.S. government he helped to create never got too big for it's britches. Musicians like Peter, Paul, and Mary have continued to remind us that we have to make our voices heard, and our music is a powerful way to do that. Thank God for people like this and I can assure you there are very few like them to step up when they are gone, the music business has seen to that. This is an excellent CD, a tribute to three great Americans, two living and one now sadly gone, who've dedicated their lives and careers for a better country and a better life for all of us.

I had the pleasure of attending about 7 or 8 PP&M concerts from 1969 to 2007, and each time I was thoroughly entertained and moved by the performances. This "live" album, with the beautiful orchestral and choral additions, has some of the best renditions of the PP&M songbook and will be a wonderful addition to my collection of PP&M recordings. It would also be a great "first" PP&M purchase for anyone not so familiar with their music. I was so glad that it includes some of their newer songs like "Don't Laugh At Me," "It's Magic," and "Jesus on the Wire." These newer pieces just serve to point out that PP&M remained current in their musical journey, and did not rest on past successes. I was truly saddened at Mary's passing last year, but feel a sense of joy at hearing her sounding so strong and clear on this recording. I truly love the album cover photo, it captures their essence so well. As you probably have guessed, I would highly recommend this album to others.

WOW! I thought I had heard all of Peter, Paul & Mary's music but obviously not. A fan since the beginning when I saw the CD coming out I ordered before the release and it came this morning and have not stopped listening. The orchestra sets their music to new heights without taking anything away from PP&M. Great tribute to Mary Travers. Don't look for everything and you may wonder why some songs were left out. I will leave that to PP&M since all 3 had a hand in putting this CD together prior to Mary's departure from this life and she was pleased with it and that is good enough for me. A MUST HAVE FOR PETER, PAUL & MARY FANS!!!!!!!!

I got to see and hear PP and M a couple of years ago--it was the highlight of my 40 years of attending concerts. This album is almost like being there and I treasure it. There are several excellent choices from their final studio album and the rest are their traditional concert standards. The thing that makes this album a must have is the beautiful, inspired, alternate vocal phrasing that they often take on our old and new favorites, making them seem new to the ear. Their mature voices and emotion continue to surprise and please with every standard. The full orchestrations are an added plus. If you do not have tears in your eyes with the last orchestra tribute you must be made of stone.

I was first intruduced to PP&M when I was a child. My mom would play their records while she did housework. At 14, my mother and I took our firt trip together....to a PP&M concert at the Minnesota State Fair. I was hooked! They were amazing both on stage and off. What truly genuine people! They stayed after the concert and signed autographs for everyone. I was in awe of them. I was able to see them in concert five more times before Mary's passing, and my most memorable was a concert at the Civic Center in Des Moines,Iowa that my aunt, my mother, and I took my then 3 year old son to. It was important to me for him to see them in concert. Of course, he loved it. One thing though, they hadn't sang his then favorite PP&M song "Inside" from the Peter Paul and Mommy Too CD. We waited near the green room after the concert(which I knew to do from previous concerts), and sure enough, Peter and Mary came out to sign autographs. While signing our CD, I told them how my son had wanted to hear the "Inside" song. Without another word, Peter began singing the song to my son while I held him, and Mary soon joined in. It is a memory we have all treasured ever since, and one of my son's earliest memories of his childhood. Their music will forever be a part of our lives, and for those few moments, they made an unforgettable impact on us, and everyone in that room. In taking the time to sing for my son, they showed all of us that everyone truly does matter, and if we take the time to let them know that, we can change their lives, if even only for those few moments. This collection is a wonderful tribute to Mary, as well as an expression of their love for each other, and for all of us. Mary will be sadly missed, but she lives on through PP&M's music and in the hearts and memories of my family and I'm sure many, many countless others.

The first "grownup" album I was given as a kid was Peter, Paul, & Mary's first album, and it has remained a favorite all my life. Along the way I have collected just about every recording that they released, as well as having seen them several times in concert. My only complaint with some of the trio's later work was that some of it was in my opinion, overproduced & tended to obscure the beautiful guitar & harmonies of PP&M. This recording takes some of those overproduced recordings and brings out the wonderful sound that we all fell in love with, and just subtle orchestral sweetening. This is in my opinion the best Peter, Paul, & Mary recording in decades, no less. Listen, you'll see...well, HEAR!

This CD, released in tribute to the recently-deceased Mary Travers, revisits highlights from the folk trio's lengthy history. It does so with the addition of a full orchestra background, which far from detracting from the original music, enhances it.

I grew up in the '60s - folk music was the Kingston Trio, Chad Mitchell Trio and, of course, PP&M. They got the best out of songs by Tom Paxton, Bob Dylan, John Denver, Gordon Lightfoot and many others - their versions became better known than those of the composers.
Years later, in the late 1990's, I got a chance to see PP&M live at the Wolftrap Center for the Performing Arts in northern Virginia. Sitting on the lawn on a warm evening, and singing all the familiar songs with the group and thousands in the audience was magical. Those memories came flooding back when Mary died two years ago, an event that brought tears to my eyes.
When this album first came out, I joyfully ordered two copies - one for me and one for my major PP&M fan wife. We played them in the car during our separate long D.C. area commutes. This week, she gave me her copy and said she just didn't like it. Previously I thought it was just me, but I sadly agree. The whole concept now seems like a ripoff, with mediocre live recordings overlayed by after-the-fact orchestral arrangements. Every song has been better done in previously released live or studio recording. Buy those.
This CD is dedicated to Mary's memory. Maybe there is a fitting tribute out there in the future, but this is not it. She deserves better.