There are some songwriters who write songs to be part of a group, some so that they can perform in front of people, some because they just love the craft of song. Then there are some songwriters who write songs because it is what they were were born to do. Born to create and travel and harvest stories of their adventures and the folks they meet along the way. Peter Mulvey is one of those types, the type that was made to write songs, and we are damn lucky that he followed that calling. Mulvey will be back for his annual Lamplighter Sessions at Club Passim (ticket link) this week with a host of friends, songs, and stories to share. I caught up with him to talk about the show and what else is going on. Check it out below:
(photo by Jonathan Ryder)
RLR: The Lamplighter Sessions…a very interesting name and concept. For those who haven’t experienced one of these mini-festivals of yours in the past, how would you sum up the experience of them?
PM: The Lamplighter Sessions are all about musicians meeting each other in front of an audience. I’ve never played a note of music with Ryan Montbleau, with Wishbone Zoe, with Jesse Dee, with Maeve Gilchrist… but they’re brave enough to just dive in. It’s a tiny, one-room festival, and the intimacy of that room is the X-factor ingredient. Everyone can see the corners of the performer’s eyes. There have been so many great moments: I remember a few years back, watching the room get into the poet Lisa Olstein’s orbit, and then Matt Lorenz (The Suitcase Junket) did his throat-singing, suitcase thumping, bravura storming-of-the-battlements, and when he finished, Rose Polenzani, who was onstage , stopped the whole show and spoke for everyone in the room, saying in a tone of joy and wonder: “Wait… just what the fuck is going ON here?”
I think audiences truly light up when they encounter a genuine sense of wonder and discovery from the performers themselves. We don’t know any more than you do, we’re just figuring this stuff out. And it’s a charge, it’s a challenge, it’s a leap of faith.
Art is all about collisions and the Lamplighter Sessions are my own dogged attempt to build a tiny little artistic particle accelerator. And I couldn’t do it without a room like Passim, and without a co-curator like Barry Rothman.
RLR: So you are coming off of a successful Kickstarter campaign that funded a successful record, Silver Ladder. How have you found the record to be received on the road? Are you enjoying getting the material out there on tour?
PM: I love having this batch of tunes to salt into the repertoire. It’s a gas. Maybe it’s that Chuck Prophet (who produced Silver Ladder) brought out my inner rock-n-roller, or maybe that guy was itching to get out all on his own, but he’s out and I’m digging it. And the crowds seem to dig it too.
RLR: Speaking of tours, you, my friend, are the king of creative and innovative touring techniques. The bicycle tours have really sparked something in others and I have a lot of respect for how you do things. What has your experience been with this format of touring, I am sure its a whole lot of work, but also reward, yes?
PM: The bicycle tours are indeed work, in the “work equals force times displacement” sense as well as logistics. I know now that I can haul myself, a bicycle, a guitar, and a saddlebag of clothes over a mountain range and still put on a show. I will never give these tours up. Love it. Gettin’ rained on, gettin’ sunburt, and seeing whooping cranes. Then you get to eat a pizza and some ice cream and then play a show. Hell yeah.
RLR: Something I ask all musicians is about the community, either here in town (Cambridge) or where they originate from themselves. You have strong ties and roots in this area as a subway performer and favorite at Club Passim when you come through town. How have you seen the community or scene here change (either for the better or worse) over your years spending time here?
PM: The musical community in the Boston area in general and orbiting Passim in particular is florid, vivid, and healthy as all get out. Look at Session Americana, Sub Rosa, looks at the Campfire. I sang the part of Orpheus when Anais brought Hadestown to Passim, Kris D was Persephone and Timmy Gearan was Hades and Dinty Child was Hermes… and that room is the perfect place for it. You gotta think that within the past three centuries, at least three or four other hot-shit writers like Anais have taken the Orpheus myth and updated it. Passim is wicked cool and there’s been something wicked cool, in an artistic sense, about that neighborhood for a long time. When I arrived as a subway and street busker in 1992, I was utterly transformed, as a singer, writer, performer, as an artist. After a couple years, when I would travel back to the Midwest to play, people there would say “Whoa. What’s in the water in Boston?” But it isn’t the water: it’s the community.
RLR: And lastly, anything and everything else that you might want to plug in the coming months aside from the sessions?
PM: Like everyone, I’m trying to figure out how to keep making a living as an artist, while intellectual property is swept away by change and while we’re all drowning in a blizzard of granular information. We are all confused, and rightly so, but my gut tells me that community is a valid, perennial answer. This is why I do the Lamplighter Sessions.
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Peter will be at Club Passim October 29th through November 2 hosting his Lamplighter Sessions festival. That’s a total of 5 different opportunities to catch this wonderful series. Be sure to get to one of these nights, or heck, get out to all 5 shows! They are always exciting and different.