Girl About Town: Ciao My Shining Star - The Songs of Mark Mulcahy (Shout Factory)

I met Mark Mulcahy once, in November 2007. It was on a night that Mark and Ken Maiuri played the North Star. This is the first night that I was lucky enough to have met my friend Ken (an amazing musician and person, bar none, as they say). It was a magical night. Later, through getting to know Ken, he would tell me about his friend Mark and Mark's wonderful wife Melissa. Mark and Melissa were amazing homemade pizza makers who loved diners, and wine with dinners at home, and were two fun people all around; wonderful, and warm people to surround oneself with.

I could imagine.

Over time and happenstance, I missed the opportunity to eat pizza with these two amazing people as a couple, and I am sadder for it. Melissa passed away due to an aneurysm in mid-September of last year, not too long ago now. I learned of this terrible news after happily, although accidentally, bumping into Ken one night while he was in town playing with one of the many bands he collaborates and is friends with, and who I was reviewing; Mary Kate O'Neil. I had just finished reading Love Is a Mix-Tape by Rob Sheffield, strangely enough, and I already empathized with Sheffield's story because of another friend that I knew who had also sadly passed not many years before because of an aneurysm, and on his wedding day to boot.

In one million years, I would never have thought that I would be so touched by two stories of such a, or what seems to be a, a near phenomenon involving lovely and very YOUNG and intensely talented and artistic people. Humans are electricity though, right? ....we burn fast and strong....we are photons, electrons, protons, and beams of light, and matter; very nearly all soul and feeling: I guess we are a bit of sugar and spice when it comes down to it.

Ciao My Shining Star is a beautiful tribute to a woman who we have to be sure was also a bit of sugar & spice herself: Melissa Rich Mulcahy. She was a mum to two daughters, a wife to Mark, and a friend and family member to many. For this touching, heartfelt and lovely compilation put out on SHOUT Factory records and through Mark and Melissa's independent label Mezzotint, there are tracks from everyone just bursting at the seams, ready and willing to pay tribute and wear their best suit while doing so. The album material fittingly comprises the amazing songs of musician Mark Mulcahy. The musicians involved in paying tribute to Mark's music, and his wife's memory, vary from The National, to Vic Chesnutt, to Unbelievable Truth, Mercury Rev and Michael Stipe. Standout tracks include The National covering "Ashamed of the Story I Told", Canadian alt-singer Hayden's "Happy Birthday Yesterday", Josh Rouse's heartbreaking "I Woke Up In the Mayflower" and Mercury Rev's wintery cover of "Sailors and Animals" fit the bill together wonderfully, and with a 41-track version of the album (with even more artists) available through iTunes, there is a wealth of material to choose from and explore: hopefully also leading you back to Mark and his originals. From beginning to end: she is a flower, and baby, we're not in Charleston, anymore.

1/ All for the Best - Thom Yorke
2/ Ashamed of the Story I Told - The National
3/ Everything's Coming Undone - Michael Stipe
4/ Love's the Only Thing That Shuts Me Up - David Berkely
5/ The Backyard - Dinosaur Junior
6/ Micon The Icon - Chris Harford and The Band of Changes
7/ Bill Jocko - Frank Black
8/ Little Man - Vic Chesnutt
9/ Ciao My Shining Star - Unbelievable Truth
10/ I Have Patience - Butterflies of Love
11/ Cookie Jar - Chris Collingwood
12/ The Quiet One - Frank Turner
13/ In Pursuit of Your Happiness - Rocket From the Tombs
14/ Wake Up Whispering - Ben Kweller
15/ I Woke Up In the Mayflower - Josh Rouse
16/ Paradise - The Autumn Defense
17/ Happy Birthday Yesterday - Hayden
18/ We're Not In Charleston Anymore - Juliana Hatfield
19/ Sailors And Animals - Mercury Rev
20/ She Watches Over Me - Elvis Perkins
21/ A World Away From This One - Sean Watkins