Friday, September 27, 7 p.m.
Codfish Hollow Barn, 5013 288th Avenue, Maquoketa IA
The beloved singer/songwriter and perennial underdog rocker Mark Mulcahy plays Maquoketa's Codfish Hollow Barn on September 27.
Mulcahy is the kind of songwriter that has put in his due for decades but doesn’t really run the risk of being a household name. The glory of his music is subtle, and rooted in a brand of quiet sentimentality that doesn’t spell out easy emotions or stories for listeners, but rather keeps them rooted with charming melodies and dynamic song structures. His tracks have some unidentifiable “X” factor that push them one step beyond standard singer/songwriter fare. Maybe a chord progression will deviate from what you expect, cramming in a few more changes before the resolution. Maybe a song will break off midway into a passage of shimmering keyboard or wordless vocalization. Maybe a song that seemed from the outset to be a torch-song ballad will explode into distorted guitar work for a minute before sinking back down into quiet beauty. In short, Mulcahy toys with conventions of songwriting, and does so to keep his audience entertained.
To this day, Mulcahy remains most well known as the leader of the band Miracle Legion and its subsequent offshoot Polaris. The former released music through the '80s and early '90s that focused on Mulcahy’s animated, almost yelped vocals that splashed across sprightly college-rock arrangements not too far from R.E.M. Miracle Legion’s excellent Surprise Surprise Surprise, released in 1987, was never a giant marquee hit, but it shines with a quiet beauty, and Mulcahy’s voice and lyrics still resonate. The highlight “All for the Best,” later covered by avowed Mulcahy fan Thom Yorke of Radiohead, remains a favorite in the Miracle Legion catalog with its lovely vocal melodies and frank, unpretentious lyrics: “Watched my brother cutting grass outside / sitting on the porch he told me / it’s a long way to go before we can rest / but it’s all for the best.” In truth, all of Mulcahy’s lyrics are this quotable and striking on the page. He has an eye for simple but affecting imagery, and prefers to focus on interpersonal relationships and psychological analyses beyond the typical frames of love or romance. While love is definitely present in his catalog, you get the sense that its presence serves loftier lyrical themes within the context of his writing.
Toward the end of their careers in the mid-'90s, as the band faced legal and label problems, Mulcahy and a number of his bandmates splintered off to form Polaris, which served as the “house band” for the beloved Nickelodeon comedy The Adventures of Pete and Pete that aired for three seasons before ending in 1996. The show is still revered as one of the most subtly complex, emotionally rich children’s shows of its era, focused on realistic struggles and irreverent humor – and Polaris’ music fit the show like a glove. The classic “Hey Sandy,” which served as the opening theme song for the show, is the kind of timeless, resonant pop/rock jam that will send millennials into a tunnel of nostalgia in the right circumstances.
Mulcahy has soldiered on since the '90s, releasing eight solo albums and opening along the way for the late Jeff Buckley and the band Oasis. His most recent album The Gus came out earlier this year, and its tunes maintain Mulcahy’s long-held standard of quality, highlighting a voice that has deepened with age but has lost none of its twitchy energy and effortless melodicism. Album highlight “Taking Baby Steps” hits with big soulful vocal peaks and thick, ringing guitar chords. When the song reaches a bridge of gentle keyboard arpeggios and Mulcahy and his band start repeating the song’s title as a mantra, it serves as one of those aforementioned “X factor” moments of his songwriting – a nice deviation from the norm that localizes exactly what makes his songs so charming. Elsewhere, the song “What If I Go Off with Bob?” hearkens back to classic '50s and '60s rock built over a brittle guitar progression and plain, disaffected vocals. When the track breaks open into an electrified stomp, Mulcahy’s vocal delivery remains steady, like he’s nonplussed by the boost in intensity. Later, the rhythm section drops away and Mulcahy duets with layers of piercing guitar leads, again demonstrating those eccentric decisions that set his writing away from the pack.
Mark Mulcahy plays the Codfish Hollow Barn on September 27 with additional sets by Miles Nielsen & the Rusted Hearts, The Prime Movers, and Flash in a Pan, and admission to the 7 p.m. show is $25-30. For more information and tickets, visit MoellerNights.com or CodfishHollowBarnstormers.com.
