Early March will mark a year since Shawn Mullins played his annual birthday shows at Eddie Owen’s Duluth music hall, the Red Clay Music Foundry, suited up for one more concert in the Northeast and then canceled the rest of his touring year — about 60 dates planned to start last April.
The genial singer-songwriter-musician, respected for hits, including “Light You Up,” “Beautiful Wreck” and his ’90s breakthrough smash, “Lullaby,” is sanguine about the 2020 detour that blindsided every working musician once the coronavirus paralyzed the live music industry.
“It was a bummer, but hey, you don’t want to chance it,” he said recently from his Atlanta home. “I miss playing on the road, but it’s been nice to have more family time and see my son a lot more.”
Mullins’ son, Murphy, is 11, and by the musician’s proud accounts, is as immersed in music as he is sports and video games.
“He’s starting to play guitar, but mostly we’ve been debating music a lot,” Mullins, 52, said in his warm, gravelly voice that is a distinct hallmark of his repertoire. “He loves that new sound with the Auto-tuned-robot-voice thing, but he was brought up on the Beatles and The (Rolling) Stones and all the great classic stuff, too. All of his friends are listening to the new stuff, so I’m being forced, in a way, to find some of the good in it!”
Credit: Tom Garland
Credit: Tom Garland
While Mullins has contentedly cocooned with his family, he’s also tiptoed back into live performing this month, playing every Sunday in January at the Red Clay Music Foundry. Only 25 tickets are being made available per performance to experience the concerts in the venue, but the shows are also streamed live for free on Red Clay’s YouTube page (YouTube.com/EOPLive).
It’s an arrangement that has satisfied both Mullins and Owen, a friend and professional ally since the ’80s at Trackside Tavern, the Decatur hub that boosted the early careers of Mullins, the Indigo Girls and Michelle Malone, among many others.
“When I met Shawney,” Owen said, using his affectionate nickname for the singer, “he was in high school, and already you could just look in his eyes and see that he had the burning desire to be better. Not popular or great — just better. Every song he wrote or developed, he wanted to make the next one a little bit better. And I was always mesmerized by his voice. It’s such a beautiful tone, and he had great pitch, and that’s still the exact scenario today. His vocal voice is as good as anybody singing.”
The long-term appreciation between Mullins and Owen is not only mutually beneficial, but the foundation of a music industry relationship to be admired.
“It’s huge what he is doing for me (with these shows). This is like a big-time booster shot, like steroids galore in what we’re trying to do here and to keep the name out there,” Owen said, admitting that since reopening for small audiences in July, business has been about 8-15% of its normal revenue.
Owen has abided by stringent safety protocols, not only with reduced capacity but sanitizer stations and contactless interactions with patrons as well; those efforts instilled confidence in Mullins that getting back on stage — at least at Owen’s place — was acceptable.
“I’m actually pretty concerned about coronavirus. I know quite a few people who have gotten it, and it really hit home when John Prine died; when your hero dies of this thing that has taken so many...,” Mullins said. “But Eddie is spreading everyone out in the venue and everything is nice and clean. If it works out, I’ll try to do my birthday shows again in March and maybe with about 80 people per night.”
Credit: David McClister
Credit: David McClister
These January concerts denote Mullins’ first live shows in 10 months, but he’s remained absorbed in music throughout the year.
He’s exploring the electric guitar — “I know it’s weird that I’ve been playing acoustic for 40-something years, but they’re very different,” Mullins said — and the recent acquisition of a 1968 Wurlitzer piano is inspiring his current work on a soundtrack for a live-action, animated film.
Working with Terry Rossio, the screenwriter behind “Shrek,” “Aladdin” and the five “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies, Mullins said the writing-for-film experience — a first for him — has been gratifying.
“He’s coming up with a lot of the lyrics, and I add melody and production and tweak the lyrics,” Mullins said. “It’s been a different experience, but really great.”
While Mullins doesn’t have a projected release date for the project, he said it’s, “on a burner, not a back burner.”
In the meantime, Mullins plans to continue weekly livestreams on his Facebook page and will enjoy driving Murphy to school, where he flips among the Bridge, the Pulse, ‘80s on 8 and the Beatles channels on SiriusXM to spark conversation between father and son about hits from the different decades.
“I’m looking forward to us playing guitar together,” Mullins said.
Another ideal use of some extra time.
IF YOU GO
Shawn Mullins
6 p.m. Jan. 17, 24 and 31. $40 in-person tickets (limited to 25 per show), free livestream. Eddie Owen Presents Live at the Red Clay Music Foundry, 3116 Main St., Duluth. 678-892-6373, eddieowenpresents.com.
