Mercy Choir Hones In On ​“Kitchen Knife Collection”

Laughter and conversation permeate the air while percussion, horns, and piano each tap in to begin ​“Just For Fun,” the sing-a-long-ready first single off Mercy Choir’s latest album, the eclectic Kitchen Knife Collection. Whether you have ventured out to a live show recently or are still keeping yourself socially distant, local singer-songwriter Paul Belbusti has created a listening experience for everyone who wants to feel alive in the moment. 

During quarantine, ​“as an introvert the thing I missed most was being in a loud bar with a bunch of people,” said Belbusti. ​“I wanted to create that atmosphere, and now it doesn’t sound as quaint or exciting, but at the time it was therapeutic to create a gathering of people. The theme of the record is togetherness. We probably all missed that the most.”

Belbusti creates a unique vibe with each Mercy Choir album, and Kitchen Knife Collection is no exception. In its nine songs, the listener gets the sense of small bar shows past, being shoulder to shoulder with other music lovers sipping whiskey and making connections new and old. It’s sharp, sultry, soul searching, and even humorous at times.

“This is a strong batch of songs” Belbusti said. ​“I’m not sure if it’s my best, but it’s my favorite sounding album, definitely.” The songs ​“successfully create the mood I was trying to create. A smoky bar with a few different bands playing, sometimes loud and raucous, sometimes quiet and sinister, sometimes folky and heartfelt.”

Although most of the songs were written over the past year, two of them were existing pieces that Belbusti revisited with a fresh outlook. ​“A couple of songs — ​‘Just for Fun’ and ​‘Kitchen Knife Collection’ — are quite old,” he said. ​“I tried to record them many times, tried to play them with others many times and couldn’t get it to work. This time they fell into place.”

The rest were ​“very new,” he said, written in quarantine and recorded then as well. Belbusti was surprised to find that he had himself a new album.

“After recording those, I looked at them all together and they seemed surprisingly cohesive,” Belbusti said. He performed them himself, with a few exceptions. Kierstin Sieser sings harmonies on two songs — ​“Mary the Contrarian” and ​“The Infinite Face” — and Bobo Lavorgna plays bass on ​“Fiddler in the North,” a song Belbusti said is ​“the longest song I ever recorded. It started as a poem or a short story. It feels very true, very honest.”

And then there’s Belbusti’s old friend Frank Critelli, who played his own special role on the record.

“I found myself living with Frank Critelli for a while. And every day,” he said, there was ​“a lot of uncertainty regarding life in general. I found myself doing what I do, and soon I was writing a song at the kitchen table. I played it for Frank, and next thing I know he’s writing it with me.”

That song, called ​“Crime Not to Try,” also features Critelli on vocals. ​“It was right and natural for him to sing on it,” Belbusti added. ​“I have no idea what it’s about. Maybe Frank knows.”

Mercy Choir’s last album, Corinthian, was released just as the Covid-19 shutdown began, and it was followed up by five singles released between April and December of 2020. ​“I had the idea to put out a new single every two weeks and do that for however long the pandemic lasted, even if that meant the rest of my life,” Belbusti said. ​“But I’m too in love with the album format and I abandoned it.”

Besides using his time to make new music, he also honed and studied his craft, specifically production styles.

“Over quarantine I wasn’t listening to specific artists,” said Belbusti. ​“I was listening mostly for production styles — T‑Bone Burnett, Blake Mills, Joe Henry — people that really use natural sounds and expand them to feel like you’re in the room with them.” But ​“every single time I say I’m going to make a record that sounds like someone else, and inevitably you sound like yourself. You can only be you. You can’t make a T‑Bone Burnett production because you are not T‑Bone Burnett. You will stumble and take detours and often find something you weren’t looking for to begin with.”

Known for his penchant for giving songwriting advice, Belbusti also passed along a similar message to those who want a new way to approach their craft. ​“I tell them, ​‘write a song you want to give to the Pointer Sisters.’ It won’t be that, but you always have a jump-off point. Produce something you like and try to do what they’re doing.”

As far as re-entering the live performance world, Belbusti is taking that slow, having performed only one show thus far, on the Best Video patio back in June.

“It was a nice way to reintroduce myself to live performing,” he said. He has no other shows scheduled just yet, and he hasn’t started working on any new songs yet either. ​“These songs are going to be hard to translate to live settings,” he said. ​“I have work to do. I’m trying to be honest with myself, and I feel healthier in every way.”

Belbusti is also trying to be honest about what the future holds for him and his music, as the world reopens but isn’t past Covid-19 quite yet.

“I don’t think we can go back to the way it was,” he said. ​“We will naturally fall back into the same patterns — we’re social animals — but I really feel like I’m fundamentally changed in every way: my relationships with people, the world, my future, my past. I feel completely different, I think most people do. I don’t think normal will exist again, and nor should it,” Belbusti said. ​“I’ve changed the way I planned to do everything in that I’m no longer planning anything. Even with Covid, it was absurd to know where we were going to be. I no longer plan for a future that doesn’t exist yet. I do my best to live in the moment. That’s my new hobby.” 

Kitchen Knife Collection will be released on July 23 on all streaming platforms and can be preordered on Bandcamp.