| Peter Mulvey began as a self-described
"city kid" from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He played,
wrote, and sang in bands while studying theatre there, and
then traveled to Dublin, Ireland, where he learned the trade
of the street singer. Returning to the States, he spent a
few years in Boston, building an audience through street and
subway performing, while also immersing himself in the thriving
musical community. He recorded two projects for the now-defunct
Boston imprint Eastern Front, and since his 2000 release The
Trouble with Poets, has made records with the venerable singer/songwriter
label Signature Sounds. His previous CD, 2002's Ten Thousand
Mornings, recorded back on his favorite Boston subway platform,
is a set of long-loved covers by the likes of Randy Newman,
Gillian Welch, Elvis Costello, Marvin Gaye, and others. Mojo
described the disc as "simultaneously Mulvey's homage
to his one-time training ground and a beautifully atmospheric
record of gifted interpretations."
Though
his home is now back in Milwaukee, Mulvey spends most of every
year as a serious disciple of the road, touring relentlessly
from Anchorage to Dublin and all points between. In addition
to this rigorous calling, Mulvey has also written and performed
music for theatre and modern dance (Sam Shepard's A Lie of
the Mind, Amiri Baraka's Primitive World, and for The Wild
Space Dance Company), penned articles for national magazines
(Acoustic Guitar, Performing Songwriter, The Writer), and
conducted numerous guitar and songwriting workshops. He has
done voice-over work for various documentaries, has had songs
placed in both film and television (the WB dramas Felicity
and Dawson's Creek, independent films Origin of the Species
and The Fisherman, the PBS documentary Wisconsin: An American
Portrait), and has just wrapped production on a full-length
DVD of his own, which features both interview and concert
footage, to be released later this year.
Mulvey also has an insatiable appetite for collaboration,
appearing on colleagues' recordings, or just stepping on stage
with other artists to try something spontaneous, something
unrehearsed. In 2003, he released the trio album Redbird with
fellow singer/songwriters Kris Delmhorst and Jeffrey Foucault
- an album of 17 songs, ranging from jazz standards to old
country tunes to contemporary covers, recorded in 3 days,
around one microphone.
In every aspect of his career, Mulvey draws on an extremely
broad swath of influence; he is always reading, always listening,
always eager to hear new poetry, modern minimalist composers,
old-time fiddle tunes, Argentinian trip-hop, or top-shelf
bar bands. And somehow, deep down, it all seeps into his work.
Still, it is the live performance that defines that work.
Night after night, solo, duo with Goody, or sometimes even
with a band, Mulvey attempts to be the sum of his parts, to
draw on all the musical legacies he has studied, to make a
fresh, vital moment out of everything he and the audience
have brought to the table that night. "People need this.
I need this. To come together in a room, to try to make music
come alive, for real, for right now, and then to let it go...
that is the whole deal for me."
If Mulvey's last record was a nod to where he is from, Kitchen
Radio is an inspired telling of where he is going.
Reservations are required.
Please contact Jeff
Rice for more information. |
