Peter Mulvey
Apr. 7th, 2006 09:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gilanaI've been seeing Peter Mulvey shows now for well over a decade. My Palm Pilot lists about ten shows going back to 1998, and I first met Peter playing in the subway somewhere around 1992, I think. I don't generally have a lot of patience for live music. There's not a lot to look at, nothing to do with my hands, and I often can't make out the words too well.
But somehow Peter's show are completely fascinating. Every show is different, songs never come out the same twice and every time I hear that words I understand them differently and he always has new stories and jokes and peeks into his weird and wonderful brain. Last night was, as usual, no different, and so completely different.
I haven't seen him solo in quite a while; usual he's accompanied at least by Goody on guitar and mandolin, if not by a full band. I really love it when it's just him and the acoustic guitar and his increasingly-raspy voice telling stories in music and words. Last night was a cd release, and he played a number of songs of the new CD, the Knuckleball Suite, and there wasn't a single on I didn't like, and several that I expect will become favorites.
He also played a number of old tunes. Generally once an artist records a song that becomes my platonic ideal, and I'm disappointed when it's changed in performance, but Peter somehow manages to keep his songs changing in a way that they are constantly new and different and yet completely still the song I love. He played On the Way Up and Shirt and Black Rabbit (just as I had been thinking how long it had been since I'd heard that and how I'd love to hear it) and Wings of the Ragman and Charlie and too many others to remember.
He played a cover of David Bowie's Let's Dance that I recognized from the first word, but would never in a million years have identified from the guitar playing behind it. And something that seemed like an old song about freedom that segued into a wordless rendition of John Lennon's Imagine where without singing a word he somehow managed to make me hear every syllable, and to listen more closely than if he had been singing.
Oh, and I'd thought I'd lost my copy of Rapture, but I went looking this morning and found it in hidden on my CD shelf, and opened it to see Peter's touching inscription, written in roller-ball pen: "Gilly - Let this dry. Peter Mulvey"
Anyway. I went to sleep way too late and I'm probably not too coherent this morning, but I wanted to share what a fabulous show it was. Thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
palmwiz and kalliejenn2 and dreams_of_wings for joining me. And if you have the time to go see Peter tonight at the Lizard Lounge or Saturday night at Johnny D's, go!
But somehow Peter's show are completely fascinating. Every show is different, songs never come out the same twice and every time I hear that words I understand them differently and he always has new stories and jokes and peeks into his weird and wonderful brain. Last night was, as usual, no different, and so completely different.
I haven't seen him solo in quite a while; usual he's accompanied at least by Goody on guitar and mandolin, if not by a full band. I really love it when it's just him and the acoustic guitar and his increasingly-raspy voice telling stories in music and words. Last night was a cd release, and he played a number of songs of the new CD, the Knuckleball Suite, and there wasn't a single on I didn't like, and several that I expect will become favorites.
He also played a number of old tunes. Generally once an artist records a song that becomes my platonic ideal, and I'm disappointed when it's changed in performance, but Peter somehow manages to keep his songs changing in a way that they are constantly new and different and yet completely still the song I love. He played On the Way Up and Shirt and Black Rabbit (just as I had been thinking how long it had been since I'd heard that and how I'd love to hear it) and Wings of the Ragman and Charlie and too many others to remember.
He played a cover of David Bowie's Let's Dance that I recognized from the first word, but would never in a million years have identified from the guitar playing behind it. And something that seemed like an old song about freedom that segued into a wordless rendition of John Lennon's Imagine where without singing a word he somehow managed to make me hear every syllable, and to listen more closely than if he had been singing.
Oh, and I'd thought I'd lost my copy of Rapture, but I went looking this morning and found it in hidden on my CD shelf, and opened it to see Peter's touching inscription, written in roller-ball pen: "Gilly - Let this dry. Peter Mulvey"
Anyway. I went to sleep way too late and I'm probably not too coherent this morning, but I wanted to share what a fabulous show it was. Thanks to
palmwiz and kalliejenn2 and dreams_of_wings for joining me. And if you have the time to go see Peter tonight at the Lizard Lounge or Saturday night at Johnny D's, go!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-04-07 02:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-07 02:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-07 02:03 pm (UTC)And, of course, now I have "On the Way Up" stuck in my head. *grin*
no subject
Date: 2006-04-07 02:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-07 04:44 pm (UTC)