Ravinia 2019, Issue 1, Week 2

RICK SPRINGFIELD Rick Springfield has worn many hats as an en- tertainer and performer over the past five de- cades. He began learning guitar in his teens, and by the late 1960s had joined a hit band in his native Australia. Within a few years, howev- er, as that band swung its sound to hard rock, Springfield set himself apart with a collection of dreamier pop-rock including his first solo hit, “Speak to the Sky.” He soon moved to the Unit- ed States, where he found further success with a new version of that song from 1972’s Beginnings . By the mid-’70s he had begun a parallel career in acting after subsequent releases produced just one comparable hit in “Take a Hand” from Wait for Night (1976), and while working on 1981’s Working Class Dog , Springfield landed the star- ring role of Dr. Noah Drake on the soap opera General Hospital . Unexpectedly, the disc’s first single, “Jessie’s Girl,” became an international number-one hit and won Springfield a Grammy, and a further two tracks, “I’ve Done Everything for You” and “Love Is Alright Tonite,” charted in the top 20. He continued portraying Drake through 1983, dividing his time between the TV show, touring, and cutting further power-pop hits. Success Hasn’t Spoiled Me Yet (1982) pro- duced the number-two smash “Don’t Talk to Strangers,” while 1983’s Living in Oz contribut- ed two top-20 singles, “Affair of the Heart” and “Human Touch,” followed by the number-five hit “Love Somebody” from the soundtrack to Hard to Hold (1984), in which he starred. After 1985’s Tao , featuring singles “Celebrate Youth” and “State of the Heart,” Springfield joined the Live Aid charity concert lineup and took a break from recording to return to acting. He returned to his General Hospital character in the mid- 2000s, and more recently Springfield appeared in the 2015 film Ricki and the Flash alongside Meryl Streep and was cast in recurring roles on HBO’s True Detective (Dr. Irving Pitlor), the CW’s Supernatural (Lucifer), and FX’s American Horror Story: Cult (Pastor Charles). He has also returned to recording, releasing three albums in as many years: Rocket Science (2016), The Snake King (2018), and Orchestrating My Life (2019). Tonight Rick Springfield is making his Ravinia debut. 7:00 PM SUNDAY, JUNE 16, 2019 PAVILION PETER YARROW & NOEL PAUL STOOKEY of Peter, Paul & Mary PETER YARROW & NOEL PAUL STOOKEY Peter Yarrow and Noel Paul Stookey carry on the tradition of the renowned folk music group Peter, Paul & Mary—a union that lasted 50 years. Peter, Paul & Mary arrived on the scene in Greenwich Village in the early 1960s, at the time when, for the majority of America, folk was viewed merely as a sidebar to pop music. The nation was still recovering from the McCa- rthy era and the Cold War was heating up, so Peter Yarrow, Noel Paul Stookey, and Mary Tra- vers came together to reclaim folk’s potency as a social, cultural, and political force. They sang at the 1963 march on Washington where Mar- tin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech, they participated in the march from Selma to Montgomery, they sang at countless anti–Vietnam War rallies, and they underscored decades of musical activism. These efforts addressed a wide range of issues, from women’s rights to farm workers’ rights to the environment, education, and issues of gun violence. No American folk group lasted longer or amassed a more loyal following than Peter, Paul & Mary; the trio won five Grammys, produced 13 top-40 hits—of which six ascended into the top 10—and earned eight gold and five platinum albums. This past December, PBS released Peter, Paul & Mary at Newport 1963–65 , which captured the spirit of America’s folk renaissance at its zenith, when folk music dominated the Top 40 charts and when songs written from the hearts of idealists, activists, and poets provided the soundtrack for enormous changes in the American socio-political landscape. The footage includes 17 songs, some with other artists, revealing the energy and sense of community between folk artists and their audiences. In addition to leading individual careers, Yarrow and Stookey continue to perform together, often enjoying their audiences singing Travers’s parts, car- rying on that same community tradition. Peter Yarrow and Noel Paul Stookey played Ravinia 22 times between 1963 and 2006 as Peter, Paul & Mary, and returned in 2010 in celebration of Mary’s legacy. RAVINIA MAGAZINE | JUNE 10 – JUNE 16, 2019 96