The Three Travelers – Biography
The Three Travelers, who take their name from one of their favorite songs are a group of young Philadelphia folk singers. They have sung together since 1959, except for a two-year break when they justified their name by world traveling. They all returned to America and Philadelphia in 1963 and continued performing in colleges and coffee houses in the Philadelphia and New York areas. The Three Travelers repertoire although international concentrates mainly on songs of the English-speaking people. Its variety ranges from Elizabethan ballads to sea shanties and from lullabies to gospels. The group got started during their undergraduate days at a party in Brooklyn naturally where they discovered each other and their ability to sing together. Their first concert took place a month later in Brooklyn and they have been singing together ever since.
Bart Singer, a final guitarist as well as a skilled recorder player was born in Philadelphia and graduated with honors from Temple University. A Fulbright fellowship took him to Germany where he spent some time in Hamburg and then traveled throughout Europe. He is currently interning in clinical psychology before returning to school for his Ph.D. His excellent bass-baritone is the cornerstone upon which the group’s songs are built. He is also a keen student of folklore
Sandi Lessin, a strikingly attractive former Penn State Coed is blessed with a full rich voice capable of singing in a wide range and with an ability to improvise varied and intricate harmonies. Sandy spent a year in Rome where she opened a coffee house with another American. She traveled next to Israel where she spent another year working on a kibbutz (collective farm) in Galilee and singing throughout Israel. Sandy currently divides her time between folk music and acting in experimental theater.
Rich Kaufman, the spokesman for The Three Travelers contributes his tenor voice, his mellow guitar, and the wit and satire that are also a part of our folk heritage. He does most of the group’s arranging and occasionally plays his lute, 12-string guitar, or recorder in the songs. Rich is the only married Traveler. He is a chemical engineer by profession having graduated from Drexel institute. His world travels have taken him as far as Baltimore, MD.
The Three Travelers style of folk song presentation is unique in many ways. Each member of the group has come from a different musical heritage. Their individual elements were blended in a period before the hootenannies sound came into vogue and thus their singing has no over-arrangement or imitation in it their harmonies and instrumental accompaniments at times very simple and at times intricate have a freshness and vibrancy that comes from putting the emphasis on the song itself rather than its arrangement.
Hear their sound here.
