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FULL TITLE: Singer's 'indecent liberties' with 14-year-old girl -- pardoned by Jimmy Carter -- get him nixed from folk music festival An 81-year-old member of the 1960s folk group Peter, Paul and Mary has been disinvited from a music festival to be held in upstate New York this fall over his 1970 jail sentence for taking “indecent liberties” with a 14-year-old girl, the festival board announced Tuesday. Peter Yarrow -- whose offense was later pardoned by former President Jimmy Carter -- was removed from the lineup at the Colorscape Chenango Arts Festival. The board announced its decision Tuesday, citing negative...

I first heard Pete Seeger perform when I was five or six, when I was a red-diaper baby and he was blacklisted and drunk. What I recall most about the encounter was that the tip of his needle-nose glowed bright red. He was performing for a children’s group of some sort at a time when his Communist background kept him out of public venues. His records — not just the Weavers albums, but the early Asch 78′s of the Almanac Singers — were daily fare in my home, along with Woody Guthrie’s children’s songs. My parents knew Guthrie casually; my...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Singer Mary Travers, 68, of Peter, Paul & Mary fame, is undergoing chemotherapy for a form of leukemia, but she is expected to be in full remission within a few months, her publicist said on Tuesday. "Mary looks forward to touring again with the trio soon, and is grateful for the well wishes that have come to her from all over the world," the statement said. No other details were released. The folk trio, which also includes Peter Yarrow and Noel Paul Stookey, is known for such hits as "Blowin' in the Wind" and "Puff The...

DES MOINES, Jan. 3 — Senator John Kerry reached into the past on Saturday with an endorsement — and a 10-minute song of tribute — from Peter Yarrow, a member of the folk group Peter, Paul and Mary. But the mini-celebrity moment took a turn when Mr. Yarrow, a peace activist since before the two men met protesting Vietnam, was asked if he was disturbed that Mr. Kerry voted in favor of war in Iraq. "Absolutely!" Mr. Yarrow shouted to a questioner, and he raised his hands to try to command the attention of reporters and Kerry supporters at the...