Noel Paul Stookey

Having recently celebrated his 86th birthday and his 65th year as a recognized activist singer/songwriter, Noel Paul Stookey continues his contribution to America's musical history with his most recent release FAZZ:NOW&THEN. With a title based on a term coined by the Dave Brubeck Quartet member Paul Desmond during a tour with Peter, Noel and Mary at the midpoint of the 20th century, the album contains 20 tracks, the major portion of them original and all of them quintessentially Stookey.

During these past several years of the pandemic and subsequent virtual performances, Noel has lent his talents to many an online cause, and while lamenting the lack of shared same-space studio time, nonetheless has managed to find ways to collaborate with singers, songwriters and other musicians across the country. His lyric contribution to “Reverence,” originally a big band song written by jazz saxophonist David Mann, has resulted in a powerful gospel-like duet with famed vocalist Theresa Thomason that calls for us to recognize the interdependence of all that's living.

Noel has been altering both the musical and ethical landscape of this country and the world for decades—both as the “Paul” of the legendary Peter, Paul and Mary and as an independent musician who passionately believes in bringing the spiritual into the practice of daily life. Funny, irreverently reverent, thoughtful, compassionately passionate, his voice is known all across this land, from the “Wedding Song” to “In These Times.”

While acknowledging his history and the meaningful association with Peter and Mary—the trio perhaps best known for its blend of modern folk music and social activism, rallying support for safe energy, peace and civil rights at some of the most iconic events in our history, including the 1963 March on Washington with Martin Luther King—Noel has stepped beyond the nostalgia of the folk era. Nearly $2 million, earned from his now-classic “Wedding Song,” were used to fund the work of other socially responsible artists, which inspired Noel in 2001, along with his daughter Liz Stookey Sunde, to launch Music To Life, a nonprofit utilizing groundbreaking ways to bring music to life for social change through technology, entertainment, artist collaboration and education.