- A folk singer-songwriter, road-dog, raconteur, and almost-poet raised working-class Catholic, Peter Mulvey started with whatever gigs he could get while hitch-hiking in Ireland and busking in the States – today he tours internationally.
- Mulvey has 18 records, thousands of live performances, a TEDx Talk, an illustrated book, a decades-long association with the National Youth Science Camp, and so much more. He folds everything he encounters into his art – poetry, social justice, scientific literacy, and a deeply abiding humanism.
- Opening for Peter Mulvey is Izzy Heltai, an indie-folk singer-songwriter who – through songs that draw from personal stories to address broader universal truths – connects deeply with his listeners. Catch them for their Saturday, January 18th concert!
Peter Mulvey has been a songwriter, road-dog, raconteur and almost-poet since before he can remember. Raised working-class Catholic on the Northwest side of Milwaukee, he took a semester in Ireland, and immediately began cutting classes to busk on Grafton Street in Dublin and hitchhike through the country, finding whatever gigs he could. Back stateside, he spent a couple years gigging in the Midwest before lighting out for Boston, where he returned to busking (this time in the subway) and coffeehouses. Small shows led to larger shows, which eventually led to regional and then national and international touring. The wheels have not stopped since.
Eighteen records, one illustrated book, thousands of live performances, a TEDx talk, a decades-long association with the National Youth Science Camp, opening for luminaries such as Ani DiFranco, Emmylou Harris, and Chuck Prophet, appearances on NPR, an annual autumn tour by bicycle, emceeing festivals, hosting his own boutique festival (the Lamplighter Sessions, in Boston and Wisconsin)… Mulvey never stops. He has built his life’s work on collaboration and on an instinct for the eclectic and the vital. He folds everything he encounters into his work: poetry, social justice, scientific literacy, and a deeply abiding humanism are all on plain display in his art.
Early in 2017, a series of upheavals found Mulvey living through a winter in a friend’s empty house in the small Midwestern town of Fort Atkinson. Unmoored and lost in the middle of his life, walking hours each day, sometimes with friends but most often alone, along the frozen marsh of the Bark river and through the wintry oak savannah nearby. The songs came in fast and strange and vivid. At night he wrote them down at a table in the spare house, just a mile from the Cafe Carpe (which Mulvey describes as his spiritual home). These songs became his new record, “There Is Another World,” a vivid dreamscape of imagistic, haiku-like auditory sketches, within which are plenty of wrenching, haunting, and even sweet songs.
Opening for Peter Mulvey on Saturday is Izzy Heltai, a Massachusetts-based indie-folk singer-songwriter from who puts a unique twist on traditional storytelling. Through songs that draw from personal stories to address broader universal truths, Izzy connects deeply with his listeners. Izzy’s latest release, Only Yesterday (April 2019) draws inspiration from the natural beauty of his native Western Massachusetts, his lived experiences, and stories from his community.With Only Yesterday, Izzy continues to build his reputation as a vital new voice in the folk community.
Catch Peter Mulvey and Izzy Heltai on Saturday, January 18 at 8pm! Get tickets here.
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