ASSOCIATED PRESS, PASTE, ACOUSTIC GUITAR MAG LAUD PETER MULVEY’S NEW ALBUM, 25TH ANNIVERSARY AS RECORDING ARTIST

NEW ANI DIFRANCO-PRODUCED ALBUM ‘ARE YOU LISTENING?’ OUT NOW ON RIGHTEOUS BABE RECORDS

Music press is embracing Peter Mulvey’s new album ‘Are You Listening?’ – out last week on Righteous Babe Records and produced by Ani DiFranco – and Peter’s 25th anniversary as a recording artist. Paste Magazine posted a video session yesterday.

Here’s what we’re hearing:

“Mulvey has been honing his craft for many a decade, and it shows. He can play some badass guitar, sing to touch your heart, and write a song that will knock you down, and by knock you down, I mean lift you up.”
- Ani DiFranco

“Plenty of clever twists… This singer-songwriter marches to his own drum, even when there isn’t one... With ‘Are You Listening?” it’s hard to stop.”
- Steven Wine, Associated Press, March 14

“Goodness gracious, Peter Mulvey sounds great.”
- Paste Magazine, March 24, 2017

“Timely and important… a true musical craftsman.”
- Sarah Zupko, Pop Matters, March 22, 2017

“Dynamic.”
- Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers, Acoustic Guitar, December 19, 2016

“Wry, sly.”
- Peter Chianca, Gatehouse Media, March 22, 2017

“Life affirming.”
- Elmore Magazine, March 28, 2017

“Poignant.”
- Courtney Devores, Charlotte Observer, January 20, 2017

Peter Mulvey Tour Dates

April 1 - Beal House - Kingston, MA
April 2 - Nelson Odeon - North Cazenovia, NY
April 5 - Once Ballroom - Somerville, MA (Multi-Artist ACLU Benefit)
April 6-8 - Club Passim - Cambridge, MA
April 21-22 - Yellow Cab Tavern - Dayton, OH
April 23 - the Kentucky Center - Louisville, KY (Tibetan Freedom Concert)
April 27 - The Ark - Ann Arbor, MI
April 28 - Szold Hall at Old Town School Of Folk Music - Chicago, IL
April 29 - COLECTIVO COFFEE - Milwaukee, WI
April 30 - Brink Lounge - Madison, WI
June 1 - Hezekiah Stone's Coffeehouse - Leicester, MA
June 3 - Flying Cat Music - Phoenicia, NY
June 4 - Sellersville Theater 1894 - Sellersville, PA
July 28 - Woodwalk Events Barn and Gallery - Egg Harbor, WI

PETER MULVEY PLOTS ‘ARE YOU LISTENING?’ TOUR AS ALBUM TO BE RELEASED MARCH 24 ON RIGHTEOUS BABE RECORDS INCLUDES SHOWS IN LA, NYC, DC, ALASKA

ALBUM PRODUCER ANI DIFRANCO WEIGHS IN ON MULVEY “GOODNESS”

NPR’S FOLK ALLEY TAPES VIDEO SESSION

MULVEY RAISES OVER $8K FOR RESISTANCE EFFORTS VIA 12-HOUR CONCERT WITH ~100 SONGS PLAYED, NO REPEATS

Million-plus mile troubadour Peter Mulvey’s producer Ani DiFranco has weighed in on Mulvey’s new album ‘Are You Listening?,’ out March 24 on her Righteous Babe Records. She says, "Mulvey has been honing his craft for many a decade and it shows. He can play some badass guitar, sing to touch your heart, and write a song that will knock you down, and by knock you down, I mean lift you up." Of ‘Are You Listening?’ she says, "This record is pure, timeless Mulvey goodness. Supported by a spare but badass backing band, the sound here is organic and real and unaffected by the whims of fashion.”

Mulvey is launching a tour that’s set to hit New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Alaska, among other spots. He recently taped a video session with NPR’s Folk Alley.

Last month, Mulvey raised approximately $8,500 for a variety of non-profits during a 12-hour Concert Window show that saw him play around 100 songs with none repeated. Beneficiaries are the ACLU, the Southern Poverty Law Center, Planned Parenthood, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Relief International, and Public Allies.

Peter Mulvey Tour Dates

February 15 - Tales from the Tavern - Santa Ynez, CA (w/ Heather Maloney)                 

February 16 - Brick 15 - Del Mar, CA (w/ Heather Maloney)

February 18 - Hotel Café - Los Angeles, CA (w/ Heather Maloney)

February 19 - Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse - Berkeley, CA (w/ Heather Maloney)

February 22 - North Star Theatre - Cordova, AK                

February 23 - Bunnell Street Arts Center - Homer, AK                  

February 24 - Latitude 62 - Talkeetna, AK                      

February 25 – TapRoot - Anchorage, AK (w/ w/ Heather Maloney, Anna Tivel)             

February 26 - Vagabond Blues - Palmer, AK (w/ Heather Maloney, Anna Tivel)   

March 9 - The Walnut Room - Denver, CO             

March 10 - Friends House Concerts - Colorado Springs, CO                      

March 11 - Old San Ysidro Church - Corrales, NM            

March 12 - Kitchen Sink Studio - Santa Fe, NM                 

March 17 - The Etude Sessions @ Paradigm - Sheboygan, WI                    

March 18 - Lost Moth Gallery - Egg Harbor, WI                

March 19 - Cafe Carpe - Fort Atkinson, WI            

March 24 - Rockwood Music Hall Stage 2 - New York, NY
March 25 - Philadelphia Folksong Society - Philadelphia, PA         

March 26 - Jammin Java - Vienna, VA                     

April 1 - Beal House - Kingston, MA                      

April 2 - Nelson Odeon - North Cazenovia, NY                  

April 6 - Club Passim - Cambridge, MA                  

April 7 - Club Passim - Cambridge, MA                  

April 8 - Club Passim - Cambridge, MA

Peter Mulvey bio

“Art should prepare us for tenderness” – Anton Chekov, as quoted by Peter Mulvey

“Guess I colored a bit outside the lines but that's me,” Peter says, after returning an email interview with some unconventional answers. It’s an apt description of his own career, which started in the subways of Boston and on the streets of Dublin and has seen Mulvey through 25 years as a recording artist. His journey has been marked by departures from the norm: an album recorded in the Boston subways; annual tours by bicycle; performing Tom Waits’ uncategorizable album ‘Rain Dogs’ live; 12-hour live performances in person and on the internet, often for worthy beneficiaries; and an album of spoken-word letters to his young nieces and nephews. Twenty-five years in and still fired up, he traveled to New Orleans to record his latest, ‘Are You Listening?’ with Ani DiFranco producing at her Big Blue studio. In February, DiFranco Tweeted, “Can’t wait for folks to hear it! What a beaut this one is, what a joy it was to make.”

‘Are You Listening?’ is his Righteous Babe Records debut with a March 24, 2017 release. As DiFranco says, "Mulvey has been honing his craft for many a decade and it shows. He can play some badass guitar, sing to touch your heart, and write a song that will knock you down – and by knock you down, I mean lift you up."

Mulvey is an iconoclast within the singer/songwriter world. Restless and inventive, he has made seventeen records, spanning rock and roll, folk, Tin Pan Alley, spoken word, and Americana. His spoken word piece “Vlad the Astrophysicist,” which arose from a conversation at his recurring gig at the National Youth Science Camp, became a TEDx talk and then, in 2016, an illustrated book. In 2007, he began an annual late summer tour by bicycle instead of by car or airplane – the 10th annual bicycle tour will happen this September. He has also taught songwriting and guitar workshops at the Swannanoa Gathering and at various folk festivals across the U.S.

Seeing a Mulvey show is like sitting in the living room with a keenly observant friend and raconteur, albeit one who’s also a dazzling fingerpicking guitarist and a master of alternate tunings; an astute poet; a social and political activist; a world traveler; and a great listener. On the album, Mulvey semi-jokingly opines, “I’m a pretty good listener, I get it from my mother.”

Listening emerges as the central theme: listening to a friend’s troubles; listening for the heart of America (as in “Which One Were You (For Trayvon Martin)”; listening to the bullied as well as for the insecurities of the bully (“Just Before the War”); listening to the earthly creatures around us with tenderness (invoking that Chekov quote in "Winter Poem"); listening for the path through hardship (“It Can Get You By”); listening to what’s happening in the moment instead of ceding to the stimulation of one’s phone (“D.I.A”); and listening for the song in a newly resurrected guitar (the title track, written in just three minutes, spilled whole from a 1957 Martin.)

“Just Before The War” is a step inside a bully’s head. Peter explains, “The narrator presents as a truly awful person. Still, I felt sympathy for him as the story unfolded. Every bully got damaged some way or other. That’s worth remembering, especially these days.” Meanwhile, “The Other Morning Over Coffee” gives us a narrator listening to a friend's troubles for the umpteenth time: listening without judgement.

Musically, the sure hand of Ani and her touring band, bassist Todd Sickafoose (who has also played with Andrew Bird, Anais Mitchell, and Nels Cline) and drummer Terence Higgins (who has also backed New Orleans legends Allen Toussaint and Fats Domino as well as Norah Jones), along with newcomer Anna Tivel, shape the songs as they run the gamut from the full-on Americana rocker “The Last Song” to the jazzy dissonance of “The Details.”

The friendship between DiFranco and Mulvey deepened in the summer of 2015. Mulvey was opening a run of shows for her when the shootings at the Emanuel Church in Charleston occurred. In the basement of the Calvin Theater in Northampton, after a long heart-to-heart conversation among the band members, Mulvey went into his dressing room and wrote “Take Down Your Flag.” He sang it twenty minutes later, and as he came offstage, DiFranco asked him to teach her the song. She sang it two days later, and substituted her own verse, written for Tywanza Sanders (one of the victims) in place of Mulvey’s verse for Susie Jackson. Within a few days, their versions were posted to YouTube and over the next few weeks, hundreds of songwriters added their own versions, including Anais Mitchell, Keb’ Mo, Paula Cole, and Jeff Daniels, reaching 200,000 cumulative views. This movement also led to an online benefit concert for the Charleston community.

Mulvey’s first love is playing music in a room for other people. He has performed some 4,000 concerts and traveled over a million miles to do it. He expects to continue to play upwards of 100 concerts a year this year and every year. DiFranco isn’t the only A-list supporter. Mulvey has shared stages with Emmylou Harris, Richard Thompson, Greg Brown, the Indigo Girls, and many others, and media have long praised his work.

NPR Music’s Bob Boilen has called his music “beautiful…. touching.”

Rolling Stone.com hailed his music ”haunting... A voice lush and hushed that occasionally sinks into a whisper."

The Washington Post said, "The subtle power of his voice, a husky, hushed baritone... understated, at once sophisticated and intimate ... song as cover-worthy as Randy Newman or Elvis Costello."

All Music testified, "For sheer musicianship, it is difficult to think of many contemporary guitar playing singer-songwriters who can claim superiority to Peter Mulvey."

With the forthcoming release of ‘Are You Listening?,’ more ears will turn Mulvey’s way as well.

Ani DiFranco Tweet on Peter Mulvey

yay! are you listening is venturing out into the world! can't wait for folks to hear it! what a beaut this one is, what a joy it was to make https://t.co/1PDPijq6mZ

— ani difranco (@anidifranco) February 10, 2017

“SINGULARLY GIFTED” (MOJO) SONGWRITER PETER MULVEY’S 17TH ALBUM PRODUCE BY ANI DIFRANCO IN NEW ORLEANS, LA

‘ARE YOU LISTENING?’ OUT MARCH 24 ON RIGHTEOUS BABE RECORDS, MARKING 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF MULVEY’S CAREER

For his 17th album ‘Are You Listening?’ (Righteous Babe Records / March 24), Peter Mulvey traveled to New Orleans to record with producer and friend Ani DiFranco and her band. ‘Are You Listening?’ marks the 25th anniversary of a rich career of approximately 4,000 concerts and over a million miles traveled. NPR’s Robert Siegel wasn’t kidding when he said, “Peter Mulvey is a 21st century troubadour.”

Lyrically, the songs from “Are You Listening?” range from the emotive, stream-of-consciousness flood of “The Other Morning Over Coffee” to the spare, haunting title track, which uses only seventeen words. The brutal allegory of “Just Before the War” is answered by the upbeat “It Can Get You By”. Working with the keen ear of a songwriter who has been informed by poetry all along, Mulvey sets the ordinary and the profound side by side, especially on the quirky opening track, “D.I.A.” which begins as a drive to the Denver Airport and ends as a call-out to “Wayfaring Stranger.”

Musically, the sure hand of Ani and her touring band, Todd Sickafoose and Terence Higgins, along with newcomer Anna Tivel, shape the songs as they run the gamut from the full-on Americana rocker “The Last Song” to the jazzy dissonance of “The Details.”

The friendship between DiFranco and Mulvey deepened in the summer of 2015. Mulvey was opening a run of shows for her when the shootings at the Emanuel Church in Charleston occurred. In the basement of the Calvin Theater in Northampton, after a long heart-to-heart among the band members, Mulvey went into his dressing room and wrote “Take Down Your Flag”. He sang it twenty minutes later, and as he came offstage, DiFranco asked him to teach her the song. She sang it two days later, and substituted her own verse for one Tywanza Sanders (one of the victims) in place of Mulvey’s verse for Susie Jackson. Within a few days, their versions were posted to YouTube and over the next few weeks, hundreds of songwriters added their own versions, including Anais Mitchell, Keb’ Mo, Paula Cole, and Jeff Daniels.

DiFranco’s help with giving “Take Down Your Flag” a wider audience naturally led to the collaboration on “Are You Listening?” Like DiFranco, Mulvey is an artist with deep roots in community: his early days as a busker in Dublin and Boston are echoed by his marathon online benefit concerts via Concert Window, the latest of which he will play from his Wisconsin home venue the Cafe Carpe on January 15. His long association with the National Youth Science Foundation prompted him to add a yearly warm-weather bicycle tour to his schedule: 2017’s tour will be the 10th anniversary, and the tours have covered thousands of miles.

Twenty-five years in, Mulvey stays true to his roots as a busker in Dublin and Boston: this January15th he will play a marathon Concert Window performance, broadcast online from his hometown Café Carpe in Atkinson, WI, to benefit the ACLU, SPLC, Planned Parenthood, the NRDC, Relief International, and Public Allies.

Mulvey has shared stages with Emmylou Harris, Richard Thompson, DiFranco, Greg Brown, the Indigo Girls, and many others.

Acoustic Guitar Magazine recently asked him to do a video session recently displaying his mastery of alternate tunings and unexpected chordal voicings: http://acousticguitar.com/lesson-folk-rock-songwriter-peter-mulvey-explains-how-to-create-a-dynamic-solo-sound-with-alternate-tunings/

NPR Music’s Bob Boilen has called his 2006 song “Abilene (The Eisenhower Waltz)” “beautiful…. touching… It’s also got a clever rhyme scheme.”

Rolling Stone.com :”Haunting... A voice lush and hushed that occasionally sinks into a whisper."

The Washington Post: "The subtle power of his voice, a husky, hushed baritone... understated, at once sophisticated and intimate [singing songs] as cover-worthy as Randy Newman, Elvis Costello."

All Music testified, "For sheer musicianship, it is difficult to think of many contemporary guitar playing singer-songwriters who can claim superiority to Peter Mulvey... It's hard to understand why Peter Mulvey isn't better known. His acoustic guitar work is flawless, avoiding folky clichés for a light, jazzy feel that makes his melodies bounce, and his singing is superb, an understated tenor that puts across deep emotion."

Peter Mulvey 2017 Winter Tour Dates

January 15 – Café Carpe (12-hour concert window) - Fort Atkinson, WI
January 19 – Motorco Music Hall – Durham, NC
January 20 – The Evening Muse – Charlotte, NC
January 21 – Isis – Asheville, NC
January 27 – The Parlor Room – Northampton, MA
January 28 - Circle of Friends Coffeehouse - Franklin, MA
January 29 - One Longfellow Square - Portland, ME
February 4 - Cafe Veritas, First Unitarian Church - Rochester, NY
February 10 - Alberta Rose Theater - Portland, OR
February 11 - Ballard Homestead - Seattle, WA
February 16 - Brick 15 - Del Mar, CA
February 18 - Hotel Café - Hollywood, CA
February 19 - Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse - Berkeley, CA
February 25 – Taproot - Anchorage, AK
February 26 - Vagabond Blues - Palmer, AK

March 9 - The Walnut Room - Denver, CO

March 10 - Friends House Concerts - Colorado Springs, CO            

March 11 - Old San Ysidro Church - Corrales, NM

March 12 - Kitchen Sink Studio - Santa Fe, NM

March 17 - The Etude Sessions @ Paradigm - Sheboygan, WI        

April 1 - Beal House - Kingston, MA                   

April 6 - Club Passim - Cambridge, MA             

April 7 - Club Passim - Cambridge, MA                         

April 8 - Club Passim - Cambridge, MA             

June 1 - Hezekiah Stone's Coffeehouse - Leicester, MA

READY-TO-BREAK ARTIST SEAN HAYES MARRIES FOLK AND R&B ON 'BEFORE TURN TO DUST,' OUT SEPT. 4

SPECTACULAR SINGING VOICE TO PLAY AT OUTSIDE LANDS MUSIC FESTIVAL

HBO'S BORED TO DEATH HAS FEATURED SONG BY ITUNES #1 ARTIST

Sean Hayes marries folk sounds with R&B grooves on 'Before We Turn To Dust,' out September 4th in partnership with the Orchard, all capped off with his stunning vibrato-laden vocals. 'Before We Turn To Dust' was written and recorded in the same year Hayes became a father. The album has a way of capturing the notions of birth, mortality, love, and struggle that echo throughout the album while the rhythms cause one's hips to sway, almost involuntarily, to the beat.

NPR and San Francisco press have raved about Hayes, who is poised to break out following tours supporting Cold War Kids, Ani DiFranco, and Jolie Holland; airplay on KCRW & WFUV; a duet on Aimee Mann’s last record; a second appearance at the Outside Lands Festival alongside Sharon Van Etten, Norah Jones, Sigur Ros, Andrew Bird, Regina Spektor and others; and a song in HBO's "Bored to Death." He has also scored multiple #1 slots on the iTunes Store's singer-songwriter chart.

NPR has called him "a young man with an old soul." SF Weekly stated, "Take him anywhere, play him for anyone, and the response is always the same: People want more. They'll write down the name if they don't know it already… You can keep your Joanna Newsoms and your Devendra Banharts. When it comes to folk music, Sean Hayes is the man [and] what sets him apart is his voice." Meanwhile, the San Francisco Chronicle called him "extraordinary."

A San Francisco Bay area artist, Hayes is accompanied by veterans Andrew Borger (Tom Waits, Norah Jones) on drums, Devin Hoff (Nels Cline Singers) on bass and relative newcomers Ezra Lipp (Thao Nguyen) on drums and multi-instrumentalist Eric Khun (Silian Rail) on keys, drums and percussion. The record was mixed by Eli Crews (Tuneyards) at New, Improved Recording in Oakland, CA.