Mulvey, Peter

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Peter Mulvey

Singer, songwriter, guitarist

Singer/songwriter Peter Mulvey has honed his craft of acoustic guitar and live vocal performances since the release of his first CDs in the early 1990s. Mulvey achieved early critical acclaim for his intricate and accomplished acoustic guitar playing, and by the time he had released his ninth solo album, The Knuckleball Suite (2006), Mulvey had carved a solid reputation as a highly innovative and stylized singer/songwriter whose influences included an eclectic mix of folk, jazz, blues, bluegrass, and rock.

Mulvey was born in the Midwestern city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1969. He attended Marquette University in his hometown, where he majored in theater and minored in English literature. When he entered college he hoped to be an actor but was interested in music and formed a college band, Big Sky, with Joe Panzetta, Dave Janssen, and Suzanne Wolff. When Mulvey traveled to Ireland to study abroad in 1989, he began busking (playing in public spots for donations) on the streets of Dublin. His experiences playing raw in front of strangers left an indelible impression, and when he returned to the United States he completed a degree in theater but began to focus on his music. While on tour in Ireland in 2002 Mulvey stated in an interview in Triste Magazine, "I feel like I'm one of the few people I went to school with that actually used what he got his degree in, you know? In Dublin, I had one of 'those' shows, which you have every two dozen shows, and I knew why. It was because I had just suddenly, really firmly, stepped into the characters in the songs—in the meanings of the songs—and become sort of a conduit for whatever the song is trying to communicate. I love those moments…. And those moments are pure theatre."

Laying down Roots

After graduating from Marquette in 1991, Mulvey continued to play with Big Sky, but the band broke up in 1992. That same year Mulvey, attracted to the thriving local folk scene, moved to Boston. Both as a way to support himself—he could earn between $15 to $20 an hour—and because he thrived on the vibe of street playing, Mulvey spent a great deal of his time in Boston playing in the subway stations. In 1992 he released his own indie CD, Brother Rabbit Speaks, and followed that two years later with another self-released CD, Rain. These two albums were later reissued in 2001. These early releases, though certainly not a commercial success, laid the foundation for Mulvey's reputation as an accomplished guitarist who is frequently compared to acoustic guitar virtuoso Leo Kottke as well as to indie phenom Ani DiFranco. While reviewing the reissue of Brother Rabbit Speaks, All Music Guide critic Evan Cater noted, "All the hallmarks of his remarkable style are already there: lightning-quick fingerwork, dizzyingly complicated strumming and picking patterns, tireless sliding and hammering, unusual tunings, razor-sharp rhythm, and bass strings often tuned so low they sound as if they are flopping around like a flag on a windy day." Initial praise for his guitar playing was tempered with hesitation about his lyrics. Cater continued, "But for all his technical proficiency, Mulvey's songwriting at this early point in his career was as slack and loose as those guitar strings." However, by the release of Rain, Mulvey had trimmed the excesses of his songwriting and had begun crafting tighter lyrics and melodies. With each successive CD, critics noted his development as a singer and songwriter. In his interview with Triste, Mulvey was self-effacing, characterizing his singing by noting, "I am in the group of people who thinks that Bob Dylan is a fantastic singer. Because he has phrasing, and he has commitment, and he has the ability to get in there and light up the words, and that's what I go for."

In the mid-1990s Mulvey won a recording contract with the now defunct Boston label Eastern Front Records to release Rapture (1995) and Deep Blue (1997). These albums marked the beginning of Mulvey's longstanding collaboration with David "Goody" Goodrich. Mulvey and Goodrich teamed up to follow a rigorous touring schedule throughout the United States, Ireland, and England. Glencree, a collection of live recordings of their performances during a 1998 tour of Ireland, was released in 1999. Like a steam engine gathering momentum, Mulvey continued to write, tour, and record, and assembled a loyal following of fans drawn to his originality and technical proficiency.

The Artist Unleashed

Mulvey signed with Signature Sounds and released the critically acclaimed CD Trouble with Poets in 2000, another collaboration with Goodrich that was marked by solid musicianship and thematically diverse songs. Mulvey shed his songwriting cloak to record a varied collection of cover tunes for his next album, Ten Thousand Mornings, released in 2002. Ten Thousand Mornings quickly created a positive buzz, not only for Mulvey's fresh interpretations of wide-ranging tunes by such artists as Randy Newman, Marvin Gaye, Elvis Costello, Bob Dylan, Gillian Welch, and Leo Kottke, but also for his unusual choice of recording venue—the Davis Square T (public transit) stop in Somerville, Massachusetts, near Boston. Oddly, it was his return to this unassuming spot where he could blend in as part of the scenery that gave rise to Mulvey's most notable mainstream popular acclaim.

In an interview aired on Weekend Edition for National Public Radio, Mulvey remarked that the intimate, honest, and spontaneous connection between audience and artist playing in the subway "has been the greatest object lesson of my life." And by all accounts from critics, this has been a lesson well-learned. Mulvey told Boston Globe correspondent Scott Alarik, "No matter what stage your career is at, busking reminds you what works in your music. And you always have to return to that."

Following the success of Ten Thousand Mornings, Mulvey returned to songwriting and released Kitchen Radio in 2004. A collection of original songs recorded in collaboration with Goodrich, the CD is noted for poetically oblique images that explore the contrasting emotions and insights of home life and life on the road, a theme inspired by Mulvey's touring schedule that sets him on tour six months out of the year. The Knuckleball Suite (2006), Mulvey's ninth solo album, offers a surprising array of original songs that, like a knuckleball pitch, are not what they seem at first glimpse. Praised for his rich, mature sound, Mulvey has continued to reach for a connection with his audience, offering to share a glimpse into his own world with those who will stop to listen.

Selected discography

Brother Rabbit Speaks/Rain, Black Walnut Records, 1992/1994; reissued, 2001.
Rapture, Eastern Front Records, 1995.
Goodbye Bob (EP), Eastern Front Records, 1997.
(With Little Big Sky) Lately, 1997.
Deep Blue, Eastern Front Records, 1997.
Glencree, Black Walnut Records, 1999.
The Trouble with Poets, Signature Sounds, 2000.
Ten Thousand Mornings, Signature Sounds, 2002.
Redbird, Signature Sounds, 2003.
Kitchen Radio, Signature Sounds, 2004.
The Knuckleball Suite, Signature Sounds, 2006.