Ciao My Shining Star

It isn't often for a musical artist to really touch me. There are plenty of bands and singers I like, sure, but there aren't many who really grab me. Thinking back on it, I find a musician who actually means something to me about once every three or four years. And standing at the top of that short list is Mark Mulcahy.

There's an overwhelming chance you've never heard that name before, or if you have, it's because you've heard of him from me. However, if you were a child of the 90s, then you've might have heard his music before. He was the lead singer for the band Polaris who did the most of the music for the Nickelodeon TV show "The Adventures of Pete and Pete." The show itself was one of a kind. It was entertaining to children without pandering to them by supplying a superfluous amount of fart jokes. It was intelligent, creative and perfectly captured the unique way kids see the world.


But any fan of the show could tell you that one of its most memorable features was the music. Each song Polaris performed was an instant classic from the poignant "Everywhere" to the energetic "Coronado II." Polaris's music was such a cornerstone of the show that there was an episode dedicated wholly to one of their songs. Then, of course, there is the famous theme song that is bound to bring a rush of nostalgia to anybody who watched the show growing up.

While Polaris was the high point of Mulcahy's career for me, his work prior and since then shouldn't be ignored. In the 80s he formed the band Miracle Legion which claimed some success but was ultimately downplayed due to their musical similarity to the already popular R.E.M. And after "The Adventures of Pete and Pete," Mulcahy continued on to have a solo career releasing several CDs since the late 90s. The album he released in 1997, "Fathering," contained a track that made it into Nick Hornby's book "31 Songs." In the book, Hornby wrote about how the song "Hey Self Defeater" made it on to every mixed tape he made that year. Mulcahy's latest album, "In Pursuit of Your Happiness," debuted in 2005 and proved that Mulcahy still had the musical talent that made him such a star a decade earlier.

Last year, though, tragedy struck Mulcahy with the sudden death of his wife, Melissa. Since then, Mulcahy has been on his own to raise his twin three-year-old daughters and, reasonably, hasn't had time to create more music. But much like how Mulcahy's music affected me, it has inspired other musicians to join together and try to help the man they all admire.

The end result of their work is a 21 track CD called "Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs of Mark Mulcahy." Each entry is a cover of a Mulcahy song performed by 21 different musicians. Some of the bigger names on the CD include Thome York from Radiohead, Michael Stipe from the formerly mentioned R.E.M. and Dinosaur Jr. If you enjoy any of those musicians, you may want to give the CD a chance and listen to the songs of the man who motivated them. The CD comes out September 29 and will be most easily available on Amazon.

While I am excited that I get to hear the re-imagining of so many of my favorite Mulcahy songs, my anticipation for this CD is more than that. I'm happy that Mulcahy hasn't been forgotten in the musical world. He never made a very big splash, but this shows that his waves still reached others. He inspired, he influenced and he taught how truly put yourself in your music. Now with this new CD I can only hope that Mulcahy's waves travel a bit farther to inspire yet another generation of musicians.