The Good Stuff, Peter Mulvey's fifteenth record, is a collection of standards which promptly rejects the accepted definition of 'standard' in favor of a more vivid, open approach.
The music of Tom Waits is right there with Duke Ellington; Willie Nelson next to Thelonious Monk; Jolie Holland juxtaposed with Bill Frisell. Mulvey (with his band, the Crumbling Beauties) address each tune with a true artist's touch. His mirthful, gravelly baritone is front and center from moment one and every track is a master class in restraint, phrasing, and commitment.
Twenty-odd years on the road, performing songs from his own catalog and from a vast, varied, and deep well of classic and obscure covers, has prepared Mulvey to deliver this collection.