Peter Mulvey - Are You Listening? (2017)

For Peter Mulvey’s 17th album, and Righteous Babe Records debut, Are You Listening?, he 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. Mulvey has shared stages with Emmylou Harris, Richard Thompson, DiFranco, Greg Brown, the Indigo Girls, and many others. 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.

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.” From beginning to end, Peter Mulvey’s Are You Listening? captures the wide range of a truly seasoned musician, singer, and songwriter in his prime.

Track List

01. D.I.A. [3:19]
02. Are You Listening? [3:43]
03. The Last Song [3:37]
04. Just Before The War [3:28]
05. Winter Poem [1:41]
06. The Other Morning Over Coffee [4:20]
07. Which One Were You? [2:32]
08. The Details [3:23]
09. It Can Get You By [2:51]
10. Oh, The Rain [4:18]
11. Sebastian [3:17]
12. Song After The Last Song [4:52]
13. Still Life [0:57]