I discovered Peter Mulvey while working at AOL, in network engineering. We shared a building with some of the AOL Radio people. They were in the process of clearing out CDs they didn’t need, so for a while there’d be a box or three of CDs that would show up in a common area for people to scavenge about once a week. His named sounded familiar so I grabbed the CD (“The Trouble with Poets”) and listened to it for about a month before finding out he was coming to town. So I paid the $10 and enjoyed the hell out of the show. I’ve been a fan since.
The songs continue to develop in their live versions, so what might have started as a solo demo and then become a fully produced track will turn and twist and morph until it’s something else again. “Charlie” is a great example of this, and thanks to the most recent CD (“Notes from Elsewhere”), which is just Peter and his guitar, you get a feel for what “Charlie” sounded like in the live show around that time. But if you hear it live now it will have changed again.
Mr. Charlie, big sound fill you up.
