Mary Travers died on September 16, 2009. R.I.P.
Even before Simon and Garfunkel, who were a huge influence on my musical preferences and guitar playing, there was "Peter, Paul and Mary". They were my first exposure to "modern" folk music when I heard them singing "Puff, the Magic Dragon" in my final year of high school (1963) while doing my homework at the dining room table. It was from their songbooks that I taught myself the basic guitar picking techniques that I still use today and that transformed my guitar playing pleasure from thrumma-thrum thrum thrum to plong-pling plingkity pling.
Ever since hearing the news of Mary Travers' passing, "Puff, the Magic Dragon" has been going through my head. May she rest in peace and be rewarded for not burying her talent.
