The Good Stuff
by Peter Mulvey
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Compact Disc (CD) + Digital AlbumIncludes unlimited streaming of The Good Stuff via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.ships out within 4 daysPurchasable with gift card
$13 USD
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Streaming + DownloadIncludes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Album download includes the 6-song companion EP "Chaser".Purchasable with gift card$9 USD
1. |
Sad and Blue
04:08
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2. |
Everybody Knows
04:28
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3. |
Are You Sure?
02:59
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4. |
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5. |
Time To Spend
03:07
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6. |
Egg Radio
03:39
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7. |
Green Grass
03:28
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8. |
Mood Indigo
03:27
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9. |
Old Fashioned Morphine
03:55
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10. |
High Noon
03:04
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11. |
No Sugar
02:47
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12. |
Sugar
02:58
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13. |
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14. |
Ruby, My Dear
02:12
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about
The Good Stuff, Peter Mulvey's fifteenth record, is a collection of standards which promptly rejects the accepted definition of “Standard” in favor of a more vivid, open approach. The music of Tom Waits is right there with Duke Ellington; Willie Nelson next to Thelonious Monk; Jolie Holland juxtaposed with Bill Frisell. Mulvey (along with his band, the Crumbling Beauties) address each tune with a true artist's touch. His mirthful, gravelly baritone is front and center from moment one, and every track is a master class in restraint, phrasing, and commitment.
Twenty-odd years on the road, performing songs from his own catalog and from a vast, varied, and deep well of classic and obscure covers, has prepared Mulvey to deliver this collection. Night after night, the process of divining the heart of a song, being alert to where the moment can lead, has shaped him as an artist. To each rendition, he brings the soul of a singer, a light touch in a heavy world.
Recorded in just three days at Signature Sounds Studios in the Connecticut Woods, the performances feature upright bassist Paul Kochanksi, violinist Randy Sabien, guitarist David Goodrich, and drummer Jason Smith. The arrangements run from quintet-in-full-swing down to hushed trio.
The centerpiece of The Good Stuff is a sequence in which a bluesy take on the Ellington classic “Mood Indigo” is sandwiched between Tom Waits’ obscure “Green Grass,” lovingly relocated from the guttural, and a charmingly haphazard rendition of Jolie Holland's “Old Fashioned Morphine”. This triptych represents not so much the diversity of songwriting on the record as the commonality. “I'd put those three artists in the same drawer in the big bureau of songwriters,” says Mulvey. “They’re from different eras, and considered different animals -- jazz composer, bohemian beat poet, Americana revivalist -- but to my ear they're the same, in that they're always trying to write a timeless song.”
Throughout the recording session Peter Mulvey was constantly throwing curveballs at the band . . . and at himself. He’d scan the list of songs he put together ahead of recording to find one unfamiliar to some or all in the room, and they’d create an arrangement on the fly and record it immediately. “When everything isn’t planned ahead of time, it can be magical how each musician finds a way into the song,” says Mulvey. “When the performance comes alive, it’s such a charge. You know that old expression ‘That’s really happening’? It’s literal. It’s such a beautifully concise description of what it means when music is really, really alive: it’s literally happening.”
The point of departure for this happening is a great song, a classic, whether enshrined in the canon or not. This record is an argument for the Great American Songbook not as a musty tome but as a living, breathing document, always open to renewal and revision. Something meant not just to be revered, but also enjoyed. In other words, The Good Stuff.
Twenty-odd years on the road, performing songs from his own catalog and from a vast, varied, and deep well of classic and obscure covers, has prepared Mulvey to deliver this collection. Night after night, the process of divining the heart of a song, being alert to where the moment can lead, has shaped him as an artist. To each rendition, he brings the soul of a singer, a light touch in a heavy world.
Recorded in just three days at Signature Sounds Studios in the Connecticut Woods, the performances feature upright bassist Paul Kochanksi, violinist Randy Sabien, guitarist David Goodrich, and drummer Jason Smith. The arrangements run from quintet-in-full-swing down to hushed trio.
The centerpiece of The Good Stuff is a sequence in which a bluesy take on the Ellington classic “Mood Indigo” is sandwiched between Tom Waits’ obscure “Green Grass,” lovingly relocated from the guttural, and a charmingly haphazard rendition of Jolie Holland's “Old Fashioned Morphine”. This triptych represents not so much the diversity of songwriting on the record as the commonality. “I'd put those three artists in the same drawer in the big bureau of songwriters,” says Mulvey. “They’re from different eras, and considered different animals -- jazz composer, bohemian beat poet, Americana revivalist -- but to my ear they're the same, in that they're always trying to write a timeless song.”
Throughout the recording session Peter Mulvey was constantly throwing curveballs at the band . . . and at himself. He’d scan the list of songs he put together ahead of recording to find one unfamiliar to some or all in the room, and they’d create an arrangement on the fly and record it immediately. “When everything isn’t planned ahead of time, it can be magical how each musician finds a way into the song,” says Mulvey. “When the performance comes alive, it’s such a charge. You know that old expression ‘That’s really happening’? It’s literal. It’s such a beautifully concise description of what it means when music is really, really alive: it’s literally happening.”
The point of departure for this happening is a great song, a classic, whether enshrined in the canon or not. This record is an argument for the Great American Songbook not as a musty tome but as a living, breathing document, always open to renewal and revision. Something meant not just to be revered, but also enjoyed. In other words, The Good Stuff.
credits
released March 28, 2012
license
all rights reserved
tags
about
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
shows
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Dec 06Appleton, WI
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Dec 07Trempealeau, WI
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Dec 08Fort Atkinson, WI
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Dec 09Kewaunee, WI
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Dec 10Sheboygan, WI
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Dec 14Fort Atkinson, WI
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Dec 15Fort Atkinson, WI
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Dec 16Fort Atkinson, WI
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Dec 17Fort Atkinson, WI
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Jan 12Northampton, MA
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Jan 28Novato, CA
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Jan 28Novato, CA
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Feb 03Somerville, MA
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Feb 04Pomfret, CT
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Feb 08Fort Atkinson, WI
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Feb 09Green Bay, WI
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Apr 06Saratoga Springs, NY
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Apr 06Saratoga Springs, NY
discography
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Aug 2022 -
May 2021 -
Oct 2020 -
Feb 2019
contact / help
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I've been a huge fan of the Winterpills for many years. Love their versions of these great songs. My favorite cover is their version of Sharon Van Etten, another one of my favorite artists. -Dani Mari danimarimusic.com
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Saw Matt live thursday/Friday great guy
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