Mustard's Retreat reflect on 50 years of doing what they love
The Michigan-based folk trio will reunite for three shows to celebrate five decades of performing together.
The past 50 years of playing live music have yieled countless memorable moments for David Tamulevich.
From opening for Doc Watson and John Prine to watching songwriting partner Michael Hough play bass and dance atop the barroom table with the owner of Doobies Pub near Flint, his time in the folk trio Mustard’s Retreat has helped him maintain his most valued experience: A direct connection to people through music.
“They say you get paid for all the time, except when you're on the stage - that's the pleasure,” Tamulevich said. “The richness of this life is the people that you meet and the relationships that you have.”
After more than 7,000 shows and 1 million miles on the road, Mustard’s Retreat trio of Tamulevich, Hough and Libby Glover are commemorating 50 years together by doing what feels most natural. They’ve scheduled three reunion performances in Flint, Ann Arbor and Columbus, Ohio — all locations that were instrumental in helping the folk trio thrive when they started playing together in 1975.
The shows are the first to include Hough since 2019, Tamulevich said, giving the group who began gigging at the Old Heidelberg Restaurant in Ann Arbor a chance to revisit locations that meant a lot to them throughout their five decades together.
“There's a lot of love for (Hough), certainly among our fans,” he said. “I'm kind of the more serious one, and he's funnier and more engaging. It's going to be very much fun to have him back.”
Shows like the one they have coming up at The Ark in Ann Arbor allow the town’s former “house band” to connect with fans who have supported them for decades, from early open mic gigs at The Ark in the ‘70s to the nightly bar gigs at The Heidelberg, Win Schuler’s and Guy Hollerin's.
“I think what keeps us going is the audiences,” Tamulevich said. “It's people for whom our music and our songs have found a way into their hearts and part of their lives.”
Both natives of Connecticut, Hough and Tamulevich began writing songs together shortly after they met while working as cooks at The Brown Jug in Ann Arbor. With Glover joining Hough and Tamulevich as an additional vocalist, the group immediately began to develop a following with tunes inspired by Peter, Paul and Mary, Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger and the Kingston Trio.
Named after a tune Tamulevich wrote a few years earlier, the title is a combination of a traditional fiddle tune, Bonaparte’s Retreat, and the last name of a friend, Nancy Mustard.
The trio were a bar band first and foremost, Tamulevich said, even if Mustard’s Retreat primarily attracted fans who drank coffee and Coke. Despite the lack of liquor sales, Mustard’s Retreat primarily played live throughout its first seven years together, gigging in Flint at venues like Doobies, Hat’s Pub and hosting two weekly radio shows on Flint’s WFBE.
All the while, they worked day jobs to support their involvement in Mustard’s Retreat. Tamulevich is a music agent and manager, having worked with Richie Havens, John Gorka, Ani DiFranco, Greg Brown, Dar Williams and the late Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul & Mary. Hough and his family bought and operated the long-running Ivory Photo until it closed in 2020.
The duo began veering away from nightly bar performances to more occassional concerts as they raised families. They also found themselves recording more frequently, releasing 15 different recordings as Mustard’s Retreat.
Two of the group’s best, melody-driven releases, 1985’s Home By Winter and Midwinter’s Night, were released on the prominent folk/acoustic label Red House Records.
Since their launch, the band has crisscrossed the Midwest and Northeast, also performing in Alaska, California, Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Canada and Lithuania, where Tamulevich was able to connect with relatives of his father’s family.
The goal has always been to entertain with songs that have depth and meaning, Tamulevich said.
“We never tried to make a living off of it, because that’s very difficult,” he said. “We just wanted to do what we wanted to do and that means playing coffee houses. That means traveling a lot for almost no money.”
Mustard Retreat will perform at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, March 28 at The Ark in Ann Arbor. Tickets can be purchased online.
Returning to the site of where so many of his group’s memories were made will feel like a family reunion of sorts, Tamulevich said, likening the experience attending a Unitarian church.
“It just feels like family,” he siad. “You go there and it's welcoming to all. I think that's what folk music is.”