“I like making records,” reflects songwriter Peter Mulvey, “but my job is the live show: getting up in a room and taking people somewhere.” Peter is stopping by Marblehead as part of his latest tour on his 12th CD, Letters From a Flying Machine. New York-based Nels Andrews opens the show.

Peter Mulvey began as a self-described “city kid” from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He played, wrote, and sang in bands while studying theatre there, and then traveled to Dublin, Ireland, in 1989, where he learned the trade of the street singer. Returning to the States, he relocated to Boston with two self-released CDs in hand. In Boston he took to playing in the subways as a full-time occupation. The seven-hour sessions playing to passers-by and commuters not only strengthened his accomplished guitar playing but also sharpened his innate gifts as a communicator. In a few short years he had made the transition to touring songwriter.

He signed with indie upstart Eastern Front Records and released two more albums and threw himself into a life on the road. Having since resettled in Milwaukee, Peter has continued his touring life while making seven solo records with Signature Sounds, the venerable singer/songwriter label based in western Massachusetts. One of his most popular CDs is Ten Thousand Mornings, a CD of cover songs recorded live on Boston’s Davis Square subway platform. The name refers to the collective number of commuters’ mornings Peter hoped he was entertaining, or touching, in some way. His albums have always maintained the spontaneity and edge of his live performances.

Mulvey’s latest CD, Letters from a Flying Machine, is perhaps one of his most unique ones. Not only does it highlight some brilliant songs but it also includes Mulvey reading aloud his letters to various nieces and nephews with airplane rumbling and instrumental accompaniment.

For the past several years Peter has done an annual fall tour entirely by bicycle, partly for environmental reasons and partly for the sheer fun of continuing his creative, unorthodox approach to a long and fruitful career as an artist. In every aspect of his career, Mulvey draws on an extremely broad swath of influence; he is always reading, listening, and eager to hear new poetry, modern minimalist composers, old-time fiddle tunes, Argentinean trip-hop, or top-shelf bar bands. Said the Irish Times: “Peter Mulvey is consistently the most original and dynamic of the US singer-songwriters to tour these shores. A phenomenal performer with huge energy, a quick fire, quirky take on life, and an extraordinary guitar style. A joy to see.”

Opener Nels Andrews “grew up” all over the country, which he’s crossed more than a few times by now. He sampled college life before being overcome by a growing wanderlust and split — hitch-hiking to Alaska for a season in the fisheries, to South Dakota to plant trees in the Black Hills, before landing in Taos, New Mexico. Ultimately he is a singer and songwriter who earned his chops hanging out with some questionable characters in his time. Nels Andrews released his first album, Sunday Shoes, independently in 2005. Eventually, Andrews was able to parlay his critical success into gigs at prominent festivals in Europe, which he managed to play while maintaining a regular job in construction in his home of Albuquerque. Moving to New York, Andrews recorded and released his second album, Off Track Betting. That first album released was deemed by BBC2’s legendary DJ Bob Harris as one his “Albums of the Year.” The record went on to win critical praise from the US, UK and Dutch Americana music communities, and has earned him awards from Kerrville, Telluride, Mountain Stage New Song and Falcon Ridge.

[Peter Mulvey’s] voice feels like fine old leather, and his guitar sounds like it’s on steroids . . . a superb technician. . . The Boston Globe

A voice lush and hushed that occasionally sinks into a whisper . . . surrealistic beauty . . . gorgeous. Rolling Stone

. . .

[Nels Andrews] has the rare ability to conjure entire vistas and characters in no more than a couple of lines. His songs are music as landscape, timeless tales that instantly take root in your mind as though they’ve been there forever. In fact, if Annie Proulx wrote songs she would sound like Nels Andrews. Americana UK

Sparsely arranged, slyly intelligent country-folk stuffed with juniper winds, Juarez jails and long women in short dresses, delivered with all the gruff urgency of Tom Waits over lap steel and ruptured guitar. Uncut