Chatting with Peter Mulvey and SistaStrings, aka Monique and Chauntee Ross, was like being a part of a family reunion. From the moment we all jumped on this zoom call, I could tell the artists who created one of my favorite albums of the year, "Live from Café Carpe" really do care about and miss each other. And that was lovely.
Recorded around Jan. 25, 2020, at a small but legendary club in Fort Atkinson, "Live from Café Carpe" is one of two albums the group recorded just before lockdown. Over the course of two days, the quartet (which included Nathan Klein on drums) recorded a studio album in that club before the doors opened for the live audience each evening (2nd album due early 2021). The energy of the crowd that gathered each night adds to the intimate and beautiful sounds of this live album.
Check out the full interview below to hear more about who always tries to do extra harmonies, what their favorite moments were from their nights recording the live album at The Café Carpe (fashion alert!) and what they pick as their favorite Milwaukee Music albums of 2020.
Dozi Zori: Can we talk about how this collaboration even got started? How did you all meet?
Chauntee: Well, this was how long ago now, maybe like four or five years ago?
Monique: Something like that. We met at the Unitarian church initially.
Peter Mulvey: You guys were playing together and I was watching. My brother takes his kids to that church. And so I was just there to see you guys. And I went up and said, hi, because you know….
C: We had been playing with Mike Mangione at the time. That was our first band where SistaStrings started diving into the folk scene a little bit more. We were playing a show in Sheboygan, we were opening up for Peter with Mike Mangione. We were crying, listening to Peter, of course it was amazing, he’s a freaking legend! After the show, Peter said hey, do you guys mind if I steal you some time? And we were like, STEAL US…STEAL US!
M: Hearing it for the first time, the energy, his music, it all struck the heart. It spoke to me immediately. I turned to Chauntee, even though she was laughing at me because I was weeping, I could tell it was speaking to her as well. We were like, absolutely, we want to play with this man and get to know this man who quickly came family.
D: What's the story behind the recording of the live album?
P: I've been playing the Cafe Carpe since 1992.
C: I was one years old in ‘92. (everyone laughs)
P: It’s a beautiful joint, The Cafe Carpe, just one of the greatest little venues on the planet earth. A lot of the greats have played there. They were a real fixture on the touring singer-songwriter scene. I wanted to make a studio record with Chauntee and Monique, ‘cause I had this whole new batch of songs. I figured, why don't we go into the Cafe Carpe and set up the recording rig. We’ll make the studio album during the day, but then at night let's just record a couple of shows. We actually wound up with two records. We did all of this in January of 2020. And it was at the end, like Jan. 25. Little did we know that we had about three and a half weeks left in our lives and that our lives were just gonna be put on hold. (laughter) This has been such an awful year and we have not been able to be in rooms with people playing music. All three of us and plus Nathan who drums, this is what we do. And all that got taken away from us. So, it just feels so good to be able to put out a record and to hear that audience, to see the videos of us with the audience crammed in there, right at the end of civilization.
D: Listening to the album, you get that energy. I think is part of what makes it feel special. You can hear the individual people clapping. There’s room for storytelling. Tell me about the songs you guys put on this album.
P: Chauntee and Monique, I and Nathan … the four musicians on the record, we’ve been playing for four or five years. We learned a whole bunch of tunes from my past. Chauntee and Monique really changed them, the way that this quartet plays really changed the tunes. On the live record, I think there's four or five new songs and six or seven old songs and six or seven covers. I know it's like nearly 20 songs.
C: He’s a great songwriter. He brings the meat and then we just add like, a little decoration to make it unique.
M: We add some sauce!
P: Most people who are as technically skilled as you two are, are not really all that fun. You know, or all that good at improvising. And then most people who are fun and good at improvising, are not as technically skilled as you. You have this really unlikely combination, that sort of deep, foundational, classical chops, but you're in the moment players. That’s the strongest thing that you have, this towering technique, but then you're just fun, just good at it.
C: We’ll take that! Thanks, Peter!
M: It's like a family, it's a community. And that comes through in the music.
C: Everybody at the Cafe Carpe is amazing. They’ve become part of our musical family, folks I know I will love and be around with forever.
D: Looking back on 2020, tell me something good that happened this year.
C: One of the biggest ones for me personally and with SistaStrings was finding out what we are actually made of. At the beginning of Covic all my work kind of went away and I thought how am I gonna make money? Then it also turned into this beautiful thing where now I'm figuring out a way to make money strictly on the things that I love, which is making music and music education. SistaStrings finally got an LLC. We were so used to just performing, performing, performing, now have time to step back and write some songs, allowing the space to show me the next steps and finding the groove for these next steps, it's really exciting.
M: We’re finding out how to be self-employed and not so reliant on having a boss and clocking in hours.
C: All of this brought out a lot of good in people. The community really has been showing up for each other. And I think that's amazing a beautiful thing to be a part of, it’s inspirational.
P: I remember looking at Chauntee and Monique showing up to play music for people waiting in line to vote. Every barrier that got thrown in front of the community and in the midst of all this, Chauntee and Monique just showing up and saying, we can give you this.
D: Go listen to this album, all 57 songs that are on it. (laughing) Any special pressings or vinyl or anything coming out?
P: The vinyl will be out, I think it might be early 2021. The studio record will be out hopefully in the summertime.
D: I can feel and see and hear your mutual love and respect. Peter, I bet there's not a day that goes by that you don't think about what would have happened if you didn't go to church that day.
P: Yeah, no fooling. There's a lesson here. Go to church.
