Peter Mulvey CD Release, Jeffrey Martin opens

Over the past 20 years, Mulvey has pursued a restless, eclectic path as a writer and musician – immersing himself in Tin PanAlley jazz, modern acoustic, poetry, narrative, and Americana stylings. Relentlessly touring as a headliner – his attitude is, “When you love what you do, you can work all the time,” – he has also shared the stage with luminaries such as Emmylou Harris, Richard Thompson, Ani diFranco, Indigo Girls, and Greg Brown, and has attracted an audience that stretches from Anchorage to Amsterdam.

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, in 1989, where he learned the trade of the street singer. Returning to the States, he relocated to Boston with two self-released CDs in hand: Brother Rabbit Speaks (1992) and Rain (1994). In Boston he took to playing in the subways as a full-time occupation. The seven hour sessions playing to passers-by and commuters not only strengthened his accomplished guitar playing but also sharpened his innate gifts as a communicator. In a few short years he had made the transition to touring songwriter. He signed with indie upstart Eastern Front Records, released Rapture (1995) and Deep Blue (1997), and threw himself into a life on the road. He quickly released Glencree (1998), a recorded live in Ireland.

The road years further seasoned his abilities as a performer. Whether playing solo or with a band in tow, Mulvey has a rare ability to hold an audience’s attention and transport them, using wit, humor, and a subtle but sophisticated melodic and harmonic sensibility to gracefully introduce complex and provocative concepts and characters.

Having since resettled back in Milwaukee, Peter has continued his touring life while making seven solo records with Signature Sounds, the venerable singer/songwriter label in western Massachusetts’ fertile musical Pioneer Valley. His sixth release, The Trouble With Poets (2000), features the title track which remains among his best-known songs. 2002 brought Ten Thousand Mornings, a CD of cover songs recorded live on Boston’s Davis Square subway platform. The name refers to the collective number of commuters’ mornings Peter hoped he was entertaining, or touching, in some way. His albums have always maintained the spontaneity and edge of his live performances, including his 2004 Kitchen Radio and 2006 CD, The Knuckleball Suite, both of which were recorded in just a few days with a band of sympathetic co-conspirators. He followed the ensemble vibe of these records with Notes from Elsewhere (2007), which consists of solo acoustic recordings of some of his most popular songs.

Collaboration is another source for Peter’s continued growth. In 2003, he released the trio album, Redbird, with fellow songwriters Kris Delmhorst and Jeffrey Foucault. The album’s 17 songs range from jazz standards to old country tunes to contemporary covers, all recorded in three days around one microphone. Peter’s annual hometown holiday in-the-round gigs have become an institution over nearly a decade. He can sit in with nearly any musician or ensemble and improvise in the common language of music.

As a complement to his touring and recording, Peter has also kept a hand in education; teaching guitar and songwriting workshops across the country. His songs and deep baritone voice have been heard in documentary films, major television shows, and by dance and theater companies. In 2004 Peter released a full-length DVD, On the Way, featuring interview and concert footage.

For the past several years Peter has done an annual Fall tour entirely by bicycle, partly for environmental reasons and partly for the sheer fun of continuing his creative, unorthodox approach to a long and fruitful career as an artist.

In every aspect of his career, Mulvey draws on an extremely broad swath of influence; he is always reading, listening, and eager to hear new poetry, modern minimalist composers, old-time fiddle tunes, Argentinean trip-hop, or top-shelf bar bands. Said The Irish Times: “Peter Mulvey is consistently the most original and dynamic of the US singer-songwriters to tour these shores. A phenomenal performer with huge energy, a quick fire, quirky take on life, and an extraordinary guitar style. A joy to see.”

Still, it is the live performance that defines that work. Night after night, whether performing solo, duo (with David “Goody” Goodrich), 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."
for me.”

http://www.petermulvey.com/

Born in Texas in 1984, Jeffrey Martin quickly made his way to the Northwest where he discovered in nature and in people what would be the deep well for much of his songwriting. His father was a lover of stories, especially in music, and Martin was raised with a careful ear cocked and listening to Neil Young, John Prine, Jackson Browne, Bob Dylan, and Harry Chapin. He was fortunate to live in Eugene, OR for much of his adolescence, where in the late 90’s and early 2000’s there was a strong and steady flow of folk songwriters touring through. Leo Kotke, John Gorka, and David Wilcox were huge inspirations.
In 2011 Jeffrey Martin caught a lucky break, a chance encounter with a prominent local promoter at a rowdy dive bar. Through that meeting he was invited to open for Tracy Grammer and then David Wilcox, which then lead to a few small tours, and eventually a finalist slot in a national songwriting competition in New York City and a successful national tour.
Martin’s music has been likened to the styles of Josh Ritter and Joe Pug, with an attention to storytelling reminiscent of Harry Chapin and John Prine. Since 2011 Jeffrey has released two full length albums (Gold in the Water (2011) and Dogs in the Daylight (2014)), and one EP entitled Build a Home (2012.) Also in 2014, Martin signed to the sensational Portland record label Fluff and Gravy Records, where he still makes a happy musical home, along with fellow artists Mike Coykendall, Nick Jaina, Fernando, Dan Stuart, Richmond Fontaine, Anna TIvel and others.
After taking a brief hiatus from touring in order to teach high school English in 2015/16, Jeffrey Martin is back on the road touring full-time nationally, with plans to hit the UK in the Spring of 2017. He has shared shows with the likes of Sean Hayes, Anais Mitchell, Joe Pug, Jefferson Hamer, David Wilcox, Gregory Alan Isakov, Jeffrey Foucault, Frank Fairfield, Tracy Grammer, Ruth Moody, and others.
When asked whether he considers himself a musician or a songwriter first Martin had this to say: “I’m a writer more than I am a musician. If I could play guitar half as well as I can write I’d be wearing nicer pants.”
Jeffrey is currently based out of Portland, OR where he is hard at work writing the next album(s.)

http://www.jeffreymartinmusic.com/

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