An Evening with Peter Mulvey & Friends

Peter Mulvey plays The Cedar Cultural Center on Thursday, December 3, joined on stage by friends from the Minneapolis music community. It's a seated, all-ages show, so it works as much for a date as it does for bringing the kids along.

Mulvey is one of the most celebrated American singer-songwriters of his era, and his career has a long, wandering history that explains a lot of what he brings to the stage. Raised in Milwaukee, he spent his early years busking on the streets of Dublin and in the subways of Boston before he started touring nationally and internationally. Since 1989, he's worked as a songwriter, a road-dog, a raconteur, and what he calls an almost-poet. The output is substantial: twenty albums, an illustrated book, thousands of live performances, and a TEDx talk. He's also a published author.

He's spent decades on the road, opening for names like Ani DiFranco, Greg Brown, Emmylou Harris, and Chuck Prophet, and he's appeared on NPR. He's also kept up a long association with the National Youth Science Camp and runs his own Lamplighter Sessions in Boston and Wisconsin. Every autumn, he takes his tour by bicycle.

The Cedar Cultural Center, at 416 Cedar Avenue, has been hosting a steady stream of shows lately, including Salin and JESSE ROPER with Mae Simpson. For this one, Mulvey won't be alone; he'll be joined by friends from the local music community, so the set will pull in voices and instruments from around the city. Doors open at 7 PM, and the show starts at 7:30 PM.