For songwriter Peter Mulvey, the political is often personal

Peter Mulvey loves a good quote.

From Mahatma Gandhi to Anton Chekhov, rotating observations and insights are featured prominently on the songwriter's website.

When it comes to the folk singer's place in the maelstrom of modern life, Mulvey has one of his own.

"What I do has never felt more flimsy but never felt more necessary," he said.

It's something storytellers often ponder. Is writing a song about a conversation between two people insignificant under the weight of tumultuous world events, or the perfect elixir in an increasingly partitioned existence?

Whatever the answer, Mulvey said he tries to approach songwriting from a long view.

"I am always and forever trying to find the eternal," Mulvey said. "Our modern little glut of social media platforms still takes place within the mystery of living and having a little glimmer in the universe."

Mulvey has never been shy about advocating for his beliefs, saying "everything I'm about is to stand up to everything our current president presents with his words and actions. We're at our best when we cooperate and come from a perspective of compassion."

In January, he raised $8,500 for nonprofits like the ACLU, Planned Parenthood and Natural Resources Defense Council with a 12-hour marathon in which he performed 100 songs without repeating one.

And while Mulvey's activism has taken precedent in recent months, his upcoming album, "Are You Listening?", is an exhibit of careful craftsmanship, not a collection of protest songs.

Produced by Ani DiFranco on her Righteous Babe Records label, the album brushes every corner of Mulvey's songwriting province.

Backed by DiFranco and her band, Mulvey drives the beat on more rocking tracks like "Sebastian," and weaves in references to Google Maps and lyrics from the folk standard "Wayfaring Stranger" in his song "D.I.A."

"She was a joy to work with," Mulvey said of DiFranco. "She's a fantastic band member and band leader. She's super tribe-oriented. The six of us formed this little troupe that went after it every day. She was just one of the soldiers in the platoon. It was fantastic."

Mulvey's relationship with DiFranco was in many ways cemented by a tragic shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015. Two days after the shooting, Mulvey was opening for DiFranco when he debuted the song "Take Down Your Flag," a tribute to the victims of the shooting carried out by Dylann Roof.

Mulvey asked other songwriters who were interested in covering the song to rewrite the second verse themselves to represent other victims (Mulvey's writing focused on one victim, Susie Jackson).

"Ani was one of the first to write her own verse and was a champion of the tune and got it out there in the world," he said. "That was a bonding experience in that awful, helpless moment."

Mulvey said he sent DiFranco around 20 songs and in many ways, she took the lead on arrangements and other areas of production.

"It's the first record I've ever made that has no electric guitar on it," he said. "All of the ambiance comes from violin and Ani playing piano and toy piano and glockenspiel and her vocals."

Aside from producing it at her New Orleans studio, DiFranco is also releasing it on her label through a more artist-friendly licensing deal.

"It's sort of part and parcel of how Ani works," he said. "She's being utterly supportive. She and the label are the megaphone for getting this out. It's my circus and monkeys and they're being fairy godmother to this."

A native of Milwaukee, Mulvey has toured almost continuously since the 1990s, with over a dozen stops in Alaska.

"This was the thing when I was a teenager," he said. "It's all I ever wanted to do. In the unlikeliest of events I'm doing it and have been doing it for 25 years now."

While Mulvey says his songs may verge into more political territory in the future, he prefers to focus on personal connections.

"It's all personalization and human stories," he said. "I'm just trying to counter the stories of fear and anger and possessiveness. We're not as vulnerable as we think. We should all calm down and enjoy each other."

Peter Mulvey

Talkeetna

When: Friday, 7:30 p.m.

Where: Latitude 62

Tickets: $25

Anchorage

When: Saturday, 7:30 p.m.

Where: Tap Root Public House (with Heather Maloney)

Tickets: $27

Palmer

When: Sunday, 6 p.m.

Where: Vagabond Blues (with Heather Maloney)

Tickets: $31.50