Noel “Paul” Stookey
His performing career began in Birmingham, Michigan, where, as a lover of jazz, pop, and standup comedy, he formed a high-school R & B band called “The Birds of Paradise.” At Michigan State University he was a popular emcee at campus events and in 1959 he heading to New York City. Soon he discovered Greenwich Village, and landed a steady gig as a singer and master of ceremonies at the Gaslight Cafe. It was there he meet Albert Grossman, who was manager at the time of activist Peter Yarrow and was looking for two more singers to complete his vision of a trio. Noel agreed to take on ‘Paul’ as his middle name and ‘Peter, Paul and Mary’ soon became a popular music phenomenon. Releasing their first album in 1962 and with two more hit releases the following year, they energized the folk revival of the 1960s and brought songs of peace and social justice to a whole generation of rock ‘n rollers. Barely two years after their debut performance at the Village’s Bitter End, they were singing in front of the Lincoln Memorial to a crowd of 250,000 people, joining Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the historic March on Washington. When asked in a 2020 interview what his most memorable time was in his five decades with the trio, Noel cited that day in Washington all those years ago. “It awakened me,” he said. “It awakened all of us.”
Noel, Peter and Mary became an iconic ‘family’ both on and off stage; the affection between the three of them palpable and present. Performing over 200 concerts a year, they brought both traditional and newly written songs of justice and peace to a global audience. During its now legendary career, the trio won five Grammy’s, produced 13 Top 40 hits, of which 6 ascended into the Top 10 – as well as eight gold and five platinum albums.
In 1969, after nearly a decade of constant travel and performing, Noel had an even deeper calling, this one of the spirit, reawakening his Christian faith and shifting his focus from the world stage to matters closer to home. “My perspective on everything changed,” he recalls, “and I am immensely grateful for it.”
The following year, the trio began their “seven years off for good behavior,” and he released his first solo album. It included the widely popular “Wedding Song,” penned for the occasion of Peter’s marriage to Marybeth McCarthy.
Since 1978, (following PP&M’s reunion concert and nearly 5 decades of trio performances prior to Mary’s death in 2009 and most recently Peter’s passing in January of 2025) Noel’s own songwriting style has addressed world issues straight on: as in “El Salvador” and “In These Times,” and often more intimately, in “Jean Claude,” and “The Connection.” These songs are included in “Just Causes,” his 2020 CD.
The 87 year old ‘folkie’ (as he often refers to himself), continues to live in Blue Hill with his wife Betty Bannard Stookey, an ordained Congregational minister, former chaplain and co-creator with Noel of “One Light Many Candles,” a multi-faith presentation of readings and songs. “To sing folk music is, ultimately, to live its ethic,“ Noel has stated often in interviews, “and, whether in the context of my family, Peter, Paul and Mary, the Bodyworks band, or my long and abiding respect for my friends and fellow folkies, I am continually amazed and thankful for all of the often surprising circumstances that continue to make up my life
