Folk singer-songwriter Peter Mulvey gathered a crowd in Boger Hall for a songwriting workshop and discussion on Wednesday, Nov. 8, moderated by Associate Professor of the Practice in Letters Charles Barber. Barber first met Mulvey at a New York City gig in the 1990s and was immediately taken by his wit, humor, and authentic presence on stage. He felt that Mulvey would be the perfect guest speaker for students in “Longform Narrative” (COL230) and “Life Writing” (COL227), two College of Letters courses he is teaching this semester. As students prepared to write their final projects, he believed Mulvey would supplement their learning well. 

“I thought it would be interesting for him to speak about songwriting in connection to narrative prose writing,” Barber said. “[Specifically on] the finding and shaping of structures, the writing process itself, sources of inspiration.”

Mulvey, a former Dublin busker, is known for his unique percussive guitar style and verbal play, as well his folding of the poetry he encounters on his travels into his lyrics. A blend of Americana, folk music, and jazz, Mulvey described his art as communicative, dependent on the community a live show brings. Within his lyrics are themes of secular humanism, social justice, and scientific literacy. 

He humbly garners praise for 19 records, an illustrated book, and a TEDx talk, and he has opened for singer-songwriters Emmylou Harris, Ani DiFranco, and Chuck Prophet.

“I’m not Tchaikovsky,” Mulvey said. “I’m not John Coltrane. I’m not Joni Mitchell. I just always loved storytelling, and this is what I do now.”

Mulvey was born in northwestern Wisconsin and raised in a working-class Catholic community. He attended the neighboring Marquette University to study theater, but it was Mulvey’s semester abroad at St. Patrick’s College in Maynooth, Ireland that left him a changed man. Mulvey began to cut classes to busk on Grafton Street in Dublin, taking a better liking to preparing for gigs than studying for exams. 

“I was in drama,” Mulvey said. “I was that dude who showed up to the third rehearsal and just had the part. I could tell other people their lines, and create parts of my own…which helps with my songwriting today.”

After the semester concluded, self-proclaimed road dog Mulvey brought his talents back to the United States, performing on midwestern stages, coffeehouses, and subways. His magic on stage took him all the way to Boston, where he said he truly cut his teeth as an artist. These humble beginnings propelled him into national fame in the indie folk and indie rock scene.

“I just have a ton of fun doing this,” Mulvey said. “I’m lucky I was at the right place at the right time.”

Mulvey is well-known for his unorthodox tours. He sets out on annual autumn bike tours every September, traversing over five thousand miles of sunburns, singing, and steep hills across the continental United States and Canada. With only a guitar and a duffel bag strapped to his shiny two wheels, Mulvey said he would both reduce his carbon footprint and evade the one-airport-to-the-next lifestyle of a touring musician.

“Perhaps the thing I most love about touring by bicycle is spending so much time outside, in the presence of a living landscape,” Mulvey told The Hingham Anchor.

The singer-songwriter was especially ecstatic about connecting with students at the University, something he found refreshing after years in the music industry. Specifically, Mulvey wanted to help students conquer their apprehensions about writing.

“There’s just an energy students have at the beginning of the…long arc of writing that I’m way out in the middle of,” Mulvey said. “You have to work at being inspired in these early parts of the journey.”

During his presentation, Mulvey performed a selection of songs, including “Shirt” off his album Kitchen Radio. He also discussed a new development in his whirlwind life as a touring musician: a toddler. Mulvey said that he sees his music as secondary to devoting time to fatherhood. 

“I’m trying to get much better at just saying no to certain tour dates,” Mulvey said. “That might mean less pay, but everything has become quite a bit secondary to just being around and having the privilege of hanging out with this new person…[who is] constructing a personality from a bunch of sensation and perception.”

After Mulvey’s presentation, the floor was opened up for student questions. One student, working on a non-fiction road trip story for her thesis, asked Mulvey about audience and how writers know when their work is valuable. Mulvey chalked it up to a sense of safety in language and storytelling, an imperative tool that dispels anxiety in both the audience and the storyteller.

“I just never lost the toddler and the eight-year-old presumption that when you open your damn mouth, people will be interested in what you have to say,” Mulvey replied. “I had three brothers, I had a mom and a dad. When [things] got electric, I felt safe…when in command of language.”

Mulvey shared one of his experimental writing exercises. He employs a top-down approach to songwriting by implementing a game of weekly prompts among friends. Involving those around him in the songwriting process, according to Mulvey, helps him escape the traps of artistic expression, namely writer’s block.

“So that act of just creating for a community, even if it’s only three people in the group, you’re on the hook, you have an obligation to write,” Mulvey said. “You can sidestep [writer’s block] and rather than asking, ‘What do I have to say?’ you can just say, ‘Well, Jesus, what am I going to turn in this Tuesday?’… Interestingly, you wind up often saying more profound things than you would have otherwise.”

Like with all creatives, deciding what works make the final cut is a grueling process, and Mulvey recommended relying on gut instinct. As a songwriter with a few hundred songs under his belt, he recognized that a much smaller amount would actually be performed and circulated, and he emphasized the importance of categorizing on his albums. 

“Write as much as you can just so that you have the opportunity,” Mulvey said during his presentation. “Maybe it’ll all fall naturally into categories, maybe you will have to throw out a few—like as if you’ll be playing with vase arrangements on a table, these picture books and these flowers, etc., and swap things in and out.” 

Mulvey also addressed the characteristics of good writing. Taking large topics and reducing them into lines with rhyme—following not only conventions of poetry but of music, an entirely separate language—is an important mechanism of songwriting. He cited the likes of John Prine, Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, and Joni Mitchell as masters in saying a few words to communicate large and complex ideas. 

“[Mulvey’s advice] to just write a song, even if you feel it’s not worthy of being written—that was fascinating to me,” Nate Uberuaga ’25 said. “I appreciate the forthcoming nature that he brought to the class, and the way in which he was really real with us about how what he does is a craft and how he embodies this persona of the storyteller.”

Content with the success of the event, Barber hoped that the visit would assist not only in creative writing but also in more interdisciplinary spheres. 

“Mainly, I wanted them to be energized and inspired,” Barber said. “But I also wanted to think about similarities in the creative process across disciplines.”  

Barber’s hopes seem to have succeeded; students emerged from the discussion with new purposes and ideas, and they saw Mulvey as a true inspiration. 

“Having Peter Mulvey come to Professor Barber’s class was really inspiring for me as a songwriter,” Uberuaga said. “His work spans so much of his life and really seems to have taken him on quite a journey.”

Mulvey will return to the University in the spring, made possible by funding from the Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life.

Carolyn Neugarten can be reached at cneugarten@wesleyan.edu.