Road block.
"I don't know much about this kind of music," a man standing next to me muttered. "But he's pretty darn good."
It's fascinating to see how an artist responds to an unusual situation. Peter Mulvey excelled in a performance at a hamburger restaurant for an audience that consisted almost entirely of his extended family and their friends last night. The Milwaukee-based Mulvey mentioned that his uncle organized the event.
Perhaps because it resembled a holiday family get-together, the room overflowed with both warm smiles and uncomfortable tension. A really nasty lover's spat took place two feet away from my barstool. Awkward...
Mulvey displayed a marvelous mastery of the increasingly rare art of engaging stage patter. Mulvey worked references to regional legends and landmarks including Eisenhower, Truman, Billy Butler and Kansas basketball into his song introductions. Of his original material, "Knuckleball Suite" resonated most strongly. Covers of Willie Nelson's "I Gotta Get Drunk" and a Louis Jordan novelty song kept the audience engaged.
"Road To Mallow" is one of three downloadable songs at his MySpace page. It's also the first track on Mulvey's Kitchen Radio.
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Kansas City Click: My Chemical Romance headlines tonight at Memorial Hall.
(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)
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