Photo: Singer-songwriter Peter Mulvey (left) and monologist David Greenberger pair their talents for a one-time-only performance at The Grove on Friday.

Greetings - Imagine using a vintage camera to photograph your family. The colors and textures of the past would change the look of their familiar faces. Maybe you'd see something you hadn't noticed before--an inheritance revealed by the old lens. That's how I hear the songs of folk musicians like Peter Mulvey, and the stories of contemporary storytellers like David Greenberger. When they take the stage with the timeless tools of their trade--an acoustic guitar, an entertaining tale--the thin layer of Now becomes transparent, and the timelessness of human hope, striving, mischief, heartbreak and desire is exposed.

Peter Mulvey is one of those rare people who take as much pleasure in sharing other people's art as he does in sharing his own. When he discovered that spoken word artist David Greenberger lives nearby, he asked David to join him for his show. Mulvey is a contemporary, world-touring singer-songwriter, making songs that range from bass heavy funk, to Vaudeville-inspired Americana, to emotional/political singer-songwriter ballads. Greenberger is a story collector who has spent decades engaging elderly people in nursing homes, meal sites and wherever old folks shall roam. He is not a cozy storyteller. His performances are truth collages--snippets of stories that lay bare the intact, complex humanity of a soul dwelling in an old body. I can't wait to hear these guys work together. It will be a one-time-only event, and I guarantee many brilliant moments.