Peter Yarrow w/ special guest Mustard's Retreat

Sunday June 14, 2015 @ 7:00 PM

Peter Yarrow’s talents as a creative artist—both with the legendary trio Peter, Paul & Mary and as a solo performer—are frequently directed at using music to convey a message of humanity and caring. His gift for songwriting has produced some of the most moving songs from Peter, Paul & Mary, including “Puff, the Magic Dragon,” “Day is Done”, “Light One Candle” and “The Great Mandala.” As a member of the renowned musical trio, Yarrow has earned multiple gold and platinum albums, as well as numerous GRAMMYs.

Over the years, many issues have moved Peter to commit his time and talent: equal rights, peace, the environment, gender equality, homelessness, hospice care, and education. All have utilized his skills as both a performer and an organizer. Peter Yarrow’s life and work – culminating in the founding and leadership of Operation Respect with its “Don’t Laugh At Me” initiative – is based on his passionate belief that music, with its power to build community and catalyze change, can be a particularly powerful organizing tool.

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Mustard’s Retreat (David Tamulevich and Michael Hough), met in Ann Arbor, MI in 1974, as short order cooks, both on hiatus from their studies at the University of Michigan. Discovering a mutual interest in music/writing and performing, they put together 3 songs one day after work, and took them to the legendary Ark coffeehouse’s open mike night. They were a hit, and, on the spot, were invited back to do a 45 minute set 2 weeks later. Within a year and a half they had both quit the restaurant and were doing music full time. 40 years later, they have 12 highly acclaimed recordings of their own, plus 3 more CDs with their songwriting collective, The Yellow Room Gang. Mustard’s Retreat has performed more than 4,000 shows over those years, traveled more than 1 million miles and in doing so, have earned a dedicated and loyal following, many of whom have been coming to hear them since the 1970s. .

While both Tamulevich and Hough are grounded in the early traditional 60s folk music boom, they also were influenced by the songwriters of that time, and their shows represent an eclectic blend of music, old and new, with a big dash of storytelling. “We have never performed the same show twice,” says Tamulevich, “Each night is its own unique moment, unique audience. For us, that is the exciting thing, the magic: to craft a shared experience and leave people entertained and moved…and with moments and songs they will take away with them and remember, ponder, rediscover; hopefully for years to come.” Many of those moments are the result of their well-respected and broad body of original material, written both individually and together. “We take our writing very seriously.” says Tamulevich, “No matter if it is a serious or humorous song. A song is a tool to communicate a feeling or a story, …to connect and find some common ground….and we want them to be as effective as we can make it. It is a challenge that we happily embrace. Each song is a unique puzzle, and it is fun to see where it can and does take you as you write it. Michael and I are both very different people and writers; having different strengths, and that diversity, when we can get it right, can make a song a whole lot richer and more effective. It is a very rewarding process.”

Links:

Tickets:

$35, $45