Facing ‘The Descent’: Mayor Pete Muldoon Unpacks His Debut Record

His baritone voice often fills the air in local venues: at the Mangy Moose when he’s fronting the alternative country band Major Zephyr; at the Pink Garter Theatre when he delivers Grateful Dead renditions with the Deadlocks. And twice a month, sometimes more, at Town Hall when he runs Jackson Town Council meetings. Mayor Pete Muldoon is not one for labels. Indeed, he wears all sorts of hats and wants none of them to define him. Muldoon is Jackson’s blue collar mayor, a baggage handler at the airport, a wedding DJ, a former bartender and restaurant manager, an activist. It’s no wonder, then, that he shies away from pigeonholing himself as a politician or a musician. Just as his progressive policy making has firmed his politico status, however, his 2018 debut album, The Descent, has cemented his place in the musical milieu. On the record, Muldoon sings and plays piano. Listeners meet a musician with a pensive, classic country cadence and a knack for crisp, narrative songwriting.