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Love Is the Only Thing

by Peter Mulvey, SistaStrings

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1.
Shenandoah 05:21
O Shenandoah I long to see you Away you rolling river O Shenandoah I long to see you Away, I’m bound away Across the wide Missouri O Shenandoah I love your daughter For her I’d cross even these raging waters For ten long years I courted Sally She broke my heart here in this valley O Shenandoah I’ll not deceive you O Shenandoah I’m bound to leave you
2.
Soft Animal 03:39
The soft animal of my body wants the soft animal of yours My despair wants to sit down quiet next to your despair Oh my heart it wants to quit because it is too tired of wanting But my hands they want your hair My shoulder wants to lean in close and be there for your leaning But my anger wants to run away or turn itself inside My shadow want to know that you’ll be there to help me hold them I will not run and hide It’s your laughter that I want to hear floating through the gathering It’s your hands I want to know about, your hips, your smile, your tears What you are and what you would be: that’s what I am asking From my lips to your ears What is it that you want? That’s what I’d like to know Tell me what you want Tell it to me slow My footsteps want to walk beside yours somewhere near the river Oh my eyes they want your dark eyes looking back at me My arms, they want to hold you until we are both believers And I want you to be free I want to touch your face, I want to kiss you by the river I want you here with me
3.
Oh my dear What a little time has done to you Oh my dear What a little time has done to you You’re all worked up; in such a state Boxing at shadows, staying up late Oh my dear What a little time has done to you Oh my dear What kind of storm blew through? Oh my dear What kind of storm blew through? The demagogue, the general, the priest Who need you most but love you least Oh my dear What kind of storm? Oh my dear How did I let you down? Oh my dear How did I let you down? I couldn’t hear you while I was out in the wind I traded your life for my original sin Oh my dear How did I let you down? Oh my dear How will we put this right? Oh my dear How will we put this right? Call the bonesetter, bring the hammer around Or wait for the rain to wash it all down Bring on the sage to show the brokers the door Grandmother’s garden or the killing floor Mother’s milk or a cleansing fire Gabriel’s horn or Orpheus’s lyre Oh my dear How will we put this right?
4.
Old men drinking Seagram’s Old women champagne In the golf course clubhouse In the sleet and the rain And there’s only one grocery store And the cannery’s gone Nobody keeps a garden But they got bid wide lawns High school parking lot spaces With the engine oil stains And the bleachers on Friday Filling up for the game And they pick on the queer kid And they pick on the Jew They’re all about winning Lord, they’re so afraid to lose And on the volleyball squad There’s one who didn’t make the cut She just wanted to fit in And they branded her a slut And lord help the smart kid The one who’s clearly getting gone But for now it’s open season For now it’s on And the tire swing is empty Nobody plays outside Coyote eating french fries At the park ’n’ ride And there’s exactly two Black kids Who ain’t exactly having fun And three shit-hole bars When the damn day is done And the kids go off to college And then they drift back home Find someone who did the same thing So they don’t have to be alone They buy big shitty houses And more stuff than they can use Trampolines and jet skis And a hundred pair of shoes They roll over and they do it And they make a few kids And they take ‘em to church Just like their parents did And in the middle of the town In the middle of the night There’s a busted skateboard Beneath a blinking red light It’s a mean old town It’s a mean old town It’s a mean old town It’s a mean old town It’s a mean old town It’s a mean old town You will never ever leave This mean old town
5.
Last night and the night before that You’re sitting there staring at a screen Staring at a screen Tryna figure where it’s at You and everybody else Lost child and you want to be found You’re sitting there swimming in your mind Swimming in your mind And you think you’re gonna drown You and everybody else They gave you everything that you could want Now you’re sitting there hungry like a ghost Hungry like a ghost Full of nothing that you want You and everybody else
6.
Early Summer of ’21 When we felt like it was all clear I guess we went a little crazy Hugging everyone We rode our bikes to the riverbank Put our bodies in the water Watched the little ones splashing Drunk on the warmth of the sun We took a train to the City Like we hadn’t done in two years And we packed into McSorley’s Just to sit and have a beer And we waited in a long line Just to get a taco And we were licking our fingers Eyes full of tears Nobody can tell you ’Til you see it with your eyes No matter how full up with sorrow Behind the clouds there was always the sky There was a singer on the sidewalk And she had a little crowd there And she was young and she was soulful And she was raking it in And then we stopped into a thrift store And you tried on a sweater And I said that you looked pretty And you gave me a grin And we walked around the village Just to see the people And the day was so perfect Even though we knew it had to end And on the last train home We could still hear that street song And we were just so happy To have been in the world again
7.
We’ll see you in five hundred days We’ll see you tomorrow We’ll see you on a day without a name And you’re gonna love it here They got dogs here- they got trees they got snow They got water everywhere When it’s next to the land they call it the sea When it falls from the sky it’s called rain They got bikes here- they got sidewalks and buses All to take you somewhere It gets loud here… sometimes it’s lonely But there are dogs in the city too They got friends here, they got strangers Hands to help and hands to hold Everyone tries to say what they mean And your heart’s gonna break some days But your heart’s gonna mend some days And the heart goes on beating just the same We’ll see you in five hundred days We’ll see you tomorrow
8.
Little one in a car seat in the back of a Honda That your mother is fueling at the pump next to mine While the screens on each pump chatter at the grownups American consumers in an orderly line On the eve of the inaugural snow is falling And the mind as they say is amazed at its fall And my left hand is freezing and your face is so perfect And I see in your eyes our history’s call And I smile in the way that we hominids do When we see a little baby hominid like you And you smile back with a look of joy or indigestion And I shiver straight down to my bones Little one, may I remind you that you and I live In the eightieth straight decade of a steady decline In violence, which used to be the curse of our species And so things probably should (and yet they don’t) feel just fine ‘Cause on the eve of the inaugural there’s a look Of pure nervousness on every face that I see I mean, I know: things rise and things fall, but like Everyone else I never thought that that applied to you and me And I smile in the way that we hominids do When we see a little baby hominid like you And you smile back with a look of joy or indigestion And I shiver straight down to my bones Little one I bequeath you this hurtling rock With its rainforest lung and its molten iron heart It’s tattered oceans and weary flora and fauna Among whom we hominids have made a tentative start
9.
When your weary tale is too cold to tell And every stranger’s glance turns you away When the mask you wear is a worn-out shell And your guiding lights refuse to say When the pages in your secret book Are torn and stained Oh my child, oh my child Close your eyes and pray for rain Now the better angels have fled the field And the people sway to a devil’s song Every bitter seed has come to fruit And common mercy deserts the throng The eyes and the hands of the city on the hill Are hard as stone Oh my friends, oh my friends Close your eyes; you’re not alone Who needs to know when the knowing is easy? You can go, but going is gone Who’s gonna hold you when you’re alone And traveling on? Every face you keep in your tender heart They must make their way in the heedless wind And although you’ve worked all of your life There is nothing you can keep; you can only begin But I’ll be just around the curve of the river and the road Where they reach the sea Oh my love, oh my love Close your eyes and reach for me
10.
Now that we are all as lonely As the lonely always were I am just like you: a face behind a screen A voice at the end of a line And I’m so scared ‘Cause I don’t get to know If I’m gonna see you on the other side Does it help to know that this was always true? Because it was And so then what were you saying When you said I love you? What does that mean? Now that you don’t get to know If you’re gonna see me on the other side Days will go by one by one by many And we’ll go on And we’ll forget and we’ll remember And we’ll say I love you And we don’t get to know But I’m gonna see you on the other side
11.
February Too 03:11
All the way from Anchorage To Tuscon, Arizona You were rubbing the sore muscles of my mind Tumbling through the jet stream Pitch and roll and yaw With fifty-seven dollars And a mood best left behind I’ll remember you if you’ll remember me When we’re gone and there’s nothing to remember I’ll remember you if you’ll remember me July, June, October and September February too We were married on a winter day And on a summer afternoon We’ll get married any time we want to Now we’re moving to the city Where they living’s free and easy You can go, but the destination haunts you I’ll remember you if you’ll remember me When we’re gone and there’s nothing to remember I’ll remember you if you’ll remember me July, June, October and September February too when there’s nothing left to do But shine on Now it’s goodbye to the money Goodbye to peace of mind Goodbye to languid morning loving Hand in hand off the diving board In all our finery With a Hail Mary to the endless sky above I’ll remember you if you’ll remember me When we’re gone and there’s nothing to remember I’ll remember you if you’ll remember me July, June, October and September February too when there’s nothing left to do But shine on
12.
I’m asking you to have some compassion For young dead Michael Brown And for his family And for his city And for the man who shot him down And for all of the marchers And for the cops and the soldiers And for the angry white men on TV And for the mothers, and the hopeful And the fearful, and the hateful And the righteous And you and me And for our friends And for our families And for our neighbors one and all And most especially for the next child For the next child we know will fall I know God loves us I know God loves us I know God loves us I don’t know how But I’m asking you to have some compassion For young dead Michael Brown
13.
All you true believers All you wide receivers Anyone who calls this world your home When the war is over I’ll still be your brother Maybe we can sort the right from the wrong Who will put it back the way that it was? Who will turn the lights on just because? Love is a hurting thing Oh but love is the only thing Anymore All you American dreamers All you Gay Deceivers Who will cross your heart and hope to die Bring your X-ray vision From the bedroom to the kitchen I’ve seen it all; you don’t have to be shy Let me put it back the way that it was Let me turn the lights on just because Love is a hurting thing Oh but love is the only thing Anymore All you happy hookers All you nightclub bookers Anyone who’s fallen from their throne There’s a rainbow in the gutter There’s dewdrops on the shutter I’m out here in the garden and I’m all alone Love is a hurting thing Oh but love is the only thing Anymore

about

To make an anti-fascist record, you must keep kindness and compassion in the foreground. That’s just what singer-songwriter-guitarist Peter Mulvey and SistaStrings (cellist-vocalist Monique Ross and violinist-vocalist Chauntee Ross) did, along with drummer Nathan Kilen. Love Is the Only Thing—out on August 22, 2022—started when the musicians gathered at their beloved Café Carpe in Fort Atkinson, WI to record a live album and a studio one. Live at the Café Carpe was released in October 2020, but the pandemic put the studio album on hold.

The bright light of family illuminates this record and all that went into making it. Its existence hinges on the way we take care of each other, from its fan-supported funding to the sanctuary of Café Carpe to the blood sisterhood of the Rosses to Mulvey’s newfound fatherhood. “This album is basically a happy family song, then a song about how fucked up things are, then a family song, then a song about how fucked up things are,” Mulvey laughs.

Fellow Milwaukeeans SistaStrings bring all the beautiful versatility of their cello and violin music, along with vocal harmonies, to the project. Classically trained string players who grew up singing in church, Monique and Chauntee were destined to defy conventions of genre and race alike, blending R&B, gospel, and classical sounds. In 2022, they performed at the Grammy Awards with Allison Russell and Brandi Carlile, two artists SistaStrings will tour with in summer 2022. The Rosses will also be performing with Carlile at a Madison Square Garden concert in October.

Mulvey met the Rosses in 2016, and all three felt an instant kinship. “Peter has been the complete definition of an ally. We found a home in the folk/americana realm when we began working with Peter and that gave our career the direction it was lacking,” says Monique. Making this album at such a tumultuous time in history reinforced their role as activists just as much as musicians. “Finding refuge and rejuvenation in these songs with this group of musicians was healing and personally some sort of mission statement for why we even make music in the first place,” Chauntee remembers.

The album explores loss, tension, and the love that sees us through it. Folk classic “Shenandoah” longs for a kinder America, while “Old Men Drinking Seagram’s” is a snapshot of a small town full of hate. “Soft Animal” offers tender sensuality, while “On the Eve of the Inaugural” finds the narrator turning his care to a baby in a stranger’s car. “Song for Michael Brown” is a humble plea for compassion for Brown and for all of us living with the threat of violence and hate.

Some songs are more focused on the loneliness of the pandemic and its flipside of love and togetherness. “You and (Everyone Else)” addresses the pandemic loneliness and fear for other’s safety, while “Five Hundred Days” promises a happy reunion. That promise is fulfilled on “First Day of Summer,” a catchy song about a day when it’s safe to hug everybody, wait in line for tacos, and feel free again.

The record finishes with the title track, a Chuck Prophet cover. With jangly acoustic guitar, rousing drumming, bold strings, and an anthemic chorus, this is the sound of musicians having fun together. It’s also a reminder that it’s not easy to make a better world, but ultimately that work reveals our humanity. “Love is a hurting thing/ Oh, but love is the only thing anymore," Mulvey and SistaStrings belt out in the refrain. It’s then abundantly clear that the love songs and the protest songs have been about the same thing all along.

credits

released August 12, 2022

Producer: Peter Mulvey
Mixer: Steven Foxbury
Composer: Peter Mulvey | Paul Cebar | John Statz | John Sieger | J Green Chuck Prophet | Kurt Lipchutz
Lyricist: Peter Mulvey | Paul Cebar | John Statz | John Sieger | J Green Chuck Prophet | Kurt Lipchutz

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Peter Mulvey Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Over the past 20 years, Peter Mulvey has pursued a restless, eclectic path as a writer and musician immersing himself in Tin Pan Alley jazz, modern acoustic, poetry, narrative, and Americana stylings. Relentlessly touring as a headliner his attitude is, “When you love what you do, you can work all the time.” ... more

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