Sunday, September 18, 2011

The Best Musician You've Probably Never Heard Of

is Peter Mulvey.

I discovered him by accident when I was living in Pennsylvania. I was at a Borders and trying to use one of those music preview machines - I thought it was the kind where you scanned the barcode of a CD you were interested in and it would play what was on it. Turned out to be the kind where there are 5 or 6 featured CDs loaded into the machine and you pick from those what you want to listen to.

So I scanned the CD I was holding and the computer defaulted to the first CD in its memory, Peter's The Knuckleball Suite. And I was like, "This isn't what I scanned but this is really good!" So I bought it instead of what was in my hand.

I told Peter that story tonight at the merch table after his gig at Gingko Coffeehouse, and he gave me a high five. :)

In all seriousness, though - I have yet to hear this man sing a song (original or cover) that I didn't like. His lyrics are smart and funny and profound, and he is one of the most skilled and most versatile guitar players I've ever heard or seen. And his stage banter is hilarious.

Plus, the dude's on a bicycle tour. He rode 70 miles today, then performed an amazing show tonight. Most impressive.

He's touring with Brianna Lane, another excellent musician, and she's local! If you're in the Twin Cities, you've got one day left to see them, at Calhoun Cycle tomorrow afternoon, or The Aster Cafe in Northeast tomorrow night.

Here's a couple youtube vids to demonstrate your need to go!

Shirt


Simon Stimson

No comments: