GORHAM – Unaccompanied by an entourage or fanfare, a music celebrity spent two days quietly working last week in Gorham while the community was unaware.

Noel Paul Stookey, who gained worldwide fame as Paul of the Peter, Paul and Mary trio, played his guitar Tuesday in a sound booth in John Stuart’s studio in his home on Mosher Road. Stuart engineered sound work for Stookey’s new CD, “One & Many,” which will be out Aug. 22.

Stookey, 74, has long employed Stuart for such work.

Stuart first worked for Stookey in the singer’s recording studio on the third floor of a former henhouse in Blue Hill during the 1970s.

“He engineered several of my albums back then,” Stookey said.

Stookey and his wife, the Rev. Elizabeth “Betty” Stookey, moved in 1974 to Blue Hill, where they raised their three daughters.

“It was an escape from New York,” said Stookey, praising Maine people and beauty of the state. “It turned into a love affair with Maine.”

In Blue Hill, the Stookeys became involved with the community. She ran a flower shop and he became involved at WERU, a Down East community radio station, as its “godfather.”

Stookey still maintains a busy schedule. After working two full days in Stuart’s studio, he was to entertain in Northport for a professional group.

“He works all the time,” Stuart said. “He loves doing what he does.”

And Stookey said he participates in a half-dozen special events annually with Peter Yarrow, the Peter of the former trio. Mary Travers died in 2009.

For 50 years, Stookey traveled with the trio.

“It was very much like a family,” he said.

Hit recordings for Peter, Paul and Mary included “Lemon Tree,” “Where Have All the Flowers Gone,” “Blowin’ in the Wind” and a song that Stookey wrote, “The Wedding Song (There is Love).”

Stuart, who has known Stookey for 34 years, said, “He’s got walls filled with platinum albums.”

“The trio’s legacy lives on,” Stookey said during a break at Stuart’s studio.

In 2011, Stookey hosted a PBS special “Legends of Folk: The Village Scene.”

And he also tours for God. Stookey and his wife, an ordained United Church of Christ minister, have a ministry, One Light, Many Candles. Offering multi-faith presentations, the couple travels extensively. This year, presentations have included those in Vermont, Florida and California besides several Maine communities.

Their website describes the multi-faith presentation as “a program of readings and music that reflect the diversity and integrity of individual faith while seeking a global spiritual community.”

On the CD to be released next month, Stookey’s wrote majority of the 15 songs. He’s releasing the songs in three individual EPs. Stuart said songs include jazz, traditional folk and folk rock. One of the songs, “Capricious Bird,” Stuart said, is a contemporary folk song.

Another song, “Cue the Moon,” is romantic ballad, Stuart said – “a great song.”

Work on the album began two years ago in Stuart’s studio and Stookey, accompanied by a four-piece band, had two weeks of sessions there in January.

During his July 17 session, Stookey jotted down notes on a yellow pad while listening intently as Stuart played sound tracks.

“We’re editing,” Stuart said.

Stookey brought out his guitar to re-record a segment. After several takes, one satisfied Stookey. “That felt good,” Stookey, who sat behind a sliding glass door in the sound booth, said to Stuart, facing a computer screen.

“It’s always about details,” Stuart said.

Stuart once toured as a band member with Stookey. “Working for Noel, we flew everywhere,” Stuart said.

Stuart described the bespectacled, bearded and neatly attired Stookey as a “regular guy, very youthful.”

Life in Maine seems like a good fit for the ageless Stookey.

“Old folk singers never die,” he joked, “they just do benefits.”

Noel Paul Stookey, of Peter, Paul and Mary fame, works on his new CD with John Stuart in the Gorham resident’s sound studio. The new CD is entitled “One & Many.” 
Staff photo by Robert Lowell

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