Peter Mulvey and Jeffrey Foucault

The winter season of the Me&Thee coffeehouse begins in great style with two of the most talked about singer-songwriters on the folk scene today: Peter Mulvey and Jeffrey Foucault. Both Mulvey and Foucault have garnered rave reviews of their most recent CDs and have often played together, most notably as two-thirds of the trio, Redbird (the third member, Kris Delmhorst, played at the Me&Thee in September).

Peter Mulvey’s musical roots go back to his childhood in Milwaukee. He sang in bands while studying theatre at Marquette University. After graduating, he traveled to Ireland, where he learned the trade of busker on the streets of Dublin. Returning to the U.S. a few years later, he settled in Boston, building an audience through street and subway performing, while also immersing himself in the thriving musical community. Since his 2000 release, “The Trouble with Poets,” Mulvey has found a home with the venerable indie label Signature Sounds Recordings. His albums for the Massachusetts label include the 2004 release, “Kitchen Radio,” the 2003 collaborative Redbird album (with label-mates Kris Delmhorst and Jeffrey Foucault), and his 2001 CD, “Ten Thousand Mornings,” an album of cover songs recorded entirely in the subways of Boston.

In addition to the critical acclaim that his recorded works have brought him, though, Peter Mulvey is also highly regarded (and respected by his fellow musicians) as a serious disciple of the road. Touring rigorously, year in and year out, has made him who and what he is. Traveling from Ireland to Anchorage and all points in between, whether playing solo, duo, or with a full-on rock back, live performance is what defines his work and is where he shines.

Peter Mulvey’s new album, “The Knuckleball Suite,” is a collection of thirteen new songs that aptly display why he has, over the length of his extensive career (this is his ninth solo release) been compared to such heavyweights as Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, Randy Newman, and others. Collaborating once again with longtime writing partner and producer David “Goody” Goodrich, the album is vibrant, surprising, and in many ways, like a notch falling perfectly into a groove for a musician with a history as rich and diverse as Mulvey’s. The Irish Times proclaims: “Peter Mulvey is consistently the most original and dynamic of the U.S. singer-songwriters to tour these shores. . . A phenomenal performer with huge energy, a quickfire, quirky take on life, and an extraordinary guitar style. . . a joy to see.”

Jeffrey Foucault is a songwriter and musician from southeastern Wisconsin. His 2001 debut album, “Miles from the Lightning,” won much praise from critics and kick-started a career of tours across the United States, Canada, and the UK. Along the way, he has played with such names as Chris Smither, Kelly Joe Phelps, Gillian Welch, and Rosanne Cash. Foucault recently teamed with legendary blues guitar player and producer Bo Ramsey to create “Ghost Repeater,” a country and blues album at the crossroads of love and lament, exploring the hopefulness of new love and the seasickness of contemporary American living.

Ghost repeaters are empty radio stations scattered around the country to re-broadcast demographically tailored playlists, endless echoes of American market culture, from thousands of miles away. Written over the course of a year in which Foucault married, “Ghost Repeater” juxtaposes a personal narrative of hope and beauty against the wider story of the times, in a series of travelogues and dreamscapes. It’s a natural pairing — Ramsey’s cool economy of phrase is the perfect complement to Foucault’s elegant lines and weather-beaten drawl — and the recording itself something of a homecoming, with Foucault traveling back to the Midwest from Massachusetts, where he’s lived the past few years, and bringing the songs he’d written home to record them with Ramsey’s longtime collaborators.

Released in spring 2006, “Ghost Repeater” features full band arrangements but hews close to the line of Foucault’s previous albums, with darkly intimate songs and rich language, framed this time around by Bo Ramsey’s signature electric guitar work in a series of country rockers and dark blues. It was an instinctive progression for Foucault — whose first two records explored the landscape and characters of his native Midwest in spare and largely acoustic terms — to broaden the focus of the music and the subject matter by incorporating a rhythm section and training his sights on not only the intimate but the wider world, the personal and the profound.

 

 

[Peter Mulvey’s] style is equal parts breezy jazz and whispery folk, screeching alt and wry cabaret. His voice feels like fine old leather, and his guitar sounds like it’s on steroids. He’s a superb technician with a fondness for ignoring the rules, and a genre-defying traditionalist — a knuckleballer with finger-picks. THE BOSTON GLOBE

Few singer-songwriters provide source notes for their lyrics, but Peter Mulvey is quirky and erudite enough to do just that. His deeper-than-deep gravelly voice conveys a rock-of-ages gravitas, while on guitar he’s adept at everything from tender acoustic picking to rootsy blues and jazz. Like a knuckleball, Mulvey keeps listeners guessing which direction he’ll take as he ranges from Telecaster-driven rock to Celtic ballad to country swing, with meditations on politics, art, philosophy, love, and other puzzles. . . swinging, seamless perfection. . . Among the standout tracks is “Thorn,” a simple litany of metaphors (“you my lonely winter playground, you my April thaw”) punctuated by clear, ringing notes; it’s emblametic of the album’s overall brilliance — and is sure to melt hearts galore. ACOUSTIC GUITAR

. . .

An album full of gravelly, gorgeously rolling poems about weather, trains, and love. Foucault pronounces his last name “Folk-alt,” which sounds something like one of those inadequate names given to the acoustic-guitar-driven musical genre of which he is an exceptional practitioner. THE NEW YORKER

One of the best albums of the year. . . Jeffrey Foucault incorporates the best of the Americana, alt-country and roots-rock genres into his third solo album. . . Those who recall Bruce Springsteen in the pre-“Born to Run” days will hear echoes of the Boss. . . as well as the best of the Texas troubadours, including Joe Ely and Butch Hancock. But there’s nothing derivative about Foucault’s haunting allusions. . . the fundamental truths that emerge are undeniable. . . Musically, Foucault has created a harmonious minimalist sound that’s driven by his acoustic strumming and the economical Mark Knopfler-style electric fretwork of veteran Iowa guitarist Bo Ramsey. . . there’s a tumbling tumbleweeds sensibility to Ghost Repeater reminiscent of the finest Dust Bowl anthems. THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES