The first thing that strikes you, when listening to Peter Mulvey's new solo retrospective, Notes from Elsewhere, is how complete it feels. A voice and a guitar. The facts. When an artist's work is reduced to element, it inevitably tells something about the musicality at the bottom line. In this case, the approach also reveals a complexity of detail, a bedrock of solid technique, and a fullness and range of effect that are rare in a solo recording. It's the sort of sufficiency that can only be got through long years and hard listening.

There is, of course, the guitar. The speed and precision, the rawness and restraint, the delicate touch - like a haywagon rolling down hill on fire, driven by a man wearing an expensive suit. On songs like "If Love Is Not Enough" (first recorded on the 1995 album Rapture, and an enduring fan favorite), Mulvey, alone with his guitar, takes his own leads, not like a blues player picking the melody out against the open strings, but like a lead player trading short flurries of notes with the bass. It's safe at this point to say that Peter Mulvey has figured out how to play the guitar. He's got his very own thing. Songs like the instrumental "Black Rabbit", which Mulvey has been playing for over 15 years now, continue to evolve and showcase his varied talents on the fretboard. He plays the bass, the rhythm, and lead parts all at once. The growling slack-key figures, the rolling thumb, the jazz sensibility; all the tricks he's picked up and abandoned over the years are here combined and pressed into the service of the songs with a naturalness and ease that builds without distracting.

And then there are the songs themselves. In 15 years and a half-score of records, Peter Mulvey has found a lot of different ways to get from the beginning to the end. The songs included here are a fair inventory of the ways and the means, and they showcase the theatrical flair, novelty, energy, and swing that mark his best work. The lyrical progression through his records has been a movement toward a more open language and greater detail, toward finding and naming the sacraments in the small facts of living (notice the difference between a young songwriter's narrative in "The Dreams" as compared to the economy of language in the newer song "The Knuckleball Suite"). The young-man songs are still here, but he's found the understated voice, and the restraint to give them depth. Over the years he's lost the high warble and found the river-bed gravel at the bottom of his range, developing his voice to achieve the painter's dream of maximum effect by minimum means.

The songs collected on this record are indeed fan favorites, and they've been both praised by critics and respected by Mulvey's songwriter colleagues. They are the kind of songs musicians sit around in bars, arguing about which one is the better, and why. Arguments aside, what's certain is that Notes from Elsewhere is the straight story, a beautiful document, the man in full. In seventeen tracks it captures the first half of Peter Mulvey's career, and shows him in complete command of his powers as a writer, singer, and player. Fans, critics, and musicians in bars can't wait to see what happens in the second half.

Peter Mulvey's latest album, Notes from Elsewhere (Signature Sounds) is a retrospective collection of the very best songs Mulvey has written and performed over his 15 year recording career. Recorded solo in a studio, these are fresh takes on songs that have become fan and critic favorites over the years. While Mulvey's previous band-backed albums showcased the songs, these solo versions allow each song to shine on its own demonstrating Peter's strengths as a songwriter.

Peter Mulvey began as a self-described "city kid" from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He played, wrote, and 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 most recent albums for the Massachusetts label were the 2006 release The Knuckleball Suite, 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. MOJO described the album as "simultaneously Mulvey's homage to his one-time training ground and a beautifully atmospheric record of gifted interpretations."

Always looking for ways to further immerse himself in language, art, and music, Mulvey has also scored music for theatre and modern dance, and has had numerous songs featured in film and television including various WB programs and PBS documentaries.

Critical acclaim for Mulvey has been consistent and enthusiastic over the years:

THE WASHINGTON POST: "The subtle power of his voice, a husky, hushed baritone... understated, at once sophisticated and intimate... as cover-worthy as Randy Newman, Elvis Costello and Dar Williams."

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."

ROLLING STONE.com: "A voice lush and hushed that occasionally sinks into a whisper... imagery made all the more haunting by guitarist/co-writer David Goodrich, whose sundry string bending ranges from loose ramblings around the neck... to freeform explorations that recall John Scofield... surrealistic beauty."

MAVERICK MAGAZINE (UK): "Shades of Tom Waits' depth... moments of Bruce Cockburn-like brilliance all over the place... this is a CD that will figure in many Top 10 of the year selections."

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. Most recently, his touring career took an interesting turn, when Mulvey decided to embark on the "Look Ma, No Gasoline Tour" - a ten day, 300 mile concert tour of southern Wisconsin, to which he rode entirely on his bicycle.

Regardless of the many twists, turns, and facets of Peter Mulvey's career, his newest release, Notes from Elsewhere, brings it all back to where it started - the man, his guitar, and the song.