It is a warm summer evening, I can just hear the knuckleball suite;

I hear the clover hum along, I hear the rain clouds finding their feet…

These are the vibrations and the ripples that belong to a story; it’s a story that is told in a different way each time that these words, and their accompanying musical parchment, are heard; a story that is told in a different way, still, by each individual in the crowd that hears them together.  And for Peter Mulvey, that is how it should be.

Sal is barefoot in the backyard, calling out to the star the above the pines

And tonight, the star answer, “Sal, tonight, you are the wine, you are the wine!”

Peter Mulvey opened his show last night at the North Star Music Café, with “The Knuckleball Suite”, his wonderful abstraction of a story that he wants us to build out of the Tinker-Toy images and ideas that he provides for us.  As he explained to me in a conversation prior to the show, “I’d rather paint six or seven of the details in the room, and let the listener, not just figure out, but create, what’s going on in the room.  I really do think that if you can get a listener to tell themselves the story, that it’s a better and more vibrant story, usually, than a guy like me can tell.”

The lyrics in Mulvey’s songs are swept along by the lush, complex rhythmic and harmonic elements that he entices out of his acoustic guitar.  The melodies in his music are fairly simple, in a manner that encourages the listener to hum or sing along. But Mulvey’s use of dynamic changes in volume, tempo, and texture, along with the steel string savvy that resides in his fingertips, let the audience participate in that simplicity while still enjoying a full, complete musical experience.

He followed “Knuckleball Suite” with “Shirt”, a tune about being trapped in a comfort zone, where the pain and boredom are as much a part of the comfort as the cozy home, family, and friends.  His delta-blues influenced alternating bass notes, combined with the masterful plucking of the melody off the treble strings, drive the song along, and the meter of the lyrics land perfectly on the stepping-stones that he has laid out in the music.  His combed burlap voice dips to the lower range and hits the notes squarely, much as his bass string retains its perfect pitch despite the degree to which it has been slacked off standard tuning.

Mulvey is the type of folk performer who finishes up the sound check, and then picks up the North Star’s ubiquitous Scrabble board and invites everyone to play a game before the gig.  He listens to people, and he communicates in a very intelligent and thoughtful way, using well-constructed sentences and well-chosen words.  At the same time, he’s fun to spend time with, full of great stories, insight, and experience.

He does his best communication on stage, though.  You can see him fine-tuning his approach to the audience during the first part of his set, as if he were carefully adjusting the knob on an old radio to bring in the best reception.  Once he finds the sweet spot, he settles in and pumps the channel full of music, meaning, wit, and entertainment.

Peter Mulvey perfected this art of communing with an audience as a busker, both in Dublin, Ireland (as an exchange student in college), and in the subways of Boston.   I asked him about the performance education he received in those challenging settings.

“It’s like one long episode of “Groundhog Day”…. You’re there on a platform, and these people wander down, and then you have this silence that you can play into, and then a train comes and removes them, and brings you a new silence.  Over and over.. you could play the same song all day long, I know some people who did. But eventually you know that situation so spectacularly well, like, alright, let’s begin a song; let’s see if we can get people’s attention; let’s see if we can bring them into our world, or bring ourselves into their world, or whatever that connection is, however you construe it, you get 400 opportunities a day, three days a week, to have this sort of fundamental experience.  It was a great education.”

Back on stage, Mulvey launches into “Old Simon Stimpson”, a jazzy, funky, shuffle full of clever, ironic similes.  The story I created around this tune is about coming to a point in life where previously negative aspects of life have not changed, but our attitude has, allowing us to be happy anyway. As with most of Peter Mulvey’s work, the lesson in his music is a lot of fun to learn, especially when, on stage, Mulvey looks as if he’s having more fun than anyone.  During our earlier conversation, he talked about finding the place within himself from whence the song originally arrived, as a way of bringing out the best performance at each opportunity.

“If you can find your way into the song, then, you’re there.  You know the song, it’s not like you are spontaneously bursting into the song for the first time in your life, but you do want to make it feel just like that; that’s the beauty of it, for those of us who write songs, that’s what makes us so hooked on the process of writing songs, it such an extraordinary feeling to tap in to that vein of writing and be there. But for performing, you want to capture that feeling again;  or, maybe the best thing to say is, to find yourself in that state, now, whatever it takes;  it’s like there’s a number of doors to the room, they’re all there. It is always about trying to “get inside”.  You’re always trying to find your way in the door.”

Peter Mulvey definitely found his way in the door on this evening at The North Star Music Café.  The 50 or so people who enjoyed this show witnessed a wonderful mix of humor, excellent songwriting, masterful guitar playing, and a connection with the crowd that allowed it all to flow freely.

Mulvey has six studio albums to his credit, four of which are with Signature Sounds, the prolific Massachusetts label that so many other up and coming folk musicians call home.  His latest album, “Notes From Elsewhere” (November, 2007), is a retrospective of some fan-favorite songs, recorded in manner similar to how those fans would hear him in concert – focused on him and his guitar.  He told me he has some very specific ideas for his next project, including a CD of new songs; an album of the jazz standards that have become so important to him; an album of old traditional tunes; and a CD where he would cover his favorite contemporary songwriters and friends – people like  Jeffrey Foucault, Kris Delmhorst, and Tim Gearen.

Whatever his next project, Peter Mulvey is sure to bring to it as much intelligence, thoughtfulness, humor, and energy as he brought to The North Star Music Café last night.  Everyone enjoyed the show; and Mulvey can credit the venue for much of that success.  This is a room that engenders community, friendship, and joy, by drawing a very special crowd of people who go out of their way to make the atmosphere what it is.