Maria Muldaur and her Garden of Joy

I recently discovered Geoff & Maria Muldaur’s Pottery Pie LP and I started wondering if she was still around and what she might be doing. As it turns out, she is still touring, and recording.

The Great Recession (whoever came up with that name should be beaten about the head with a rubber cheque) has become the topic du jour for many musical artists these days, and Maria Muldaur has taken her own stab at it in Garden of Joy: Good Time Music For Hard Times.

Songs like Bank Failure Blues and The Panic Is On get straight to the point, but it was the lyrics in The Diplomat that really caught my attention:

“Well I go in to cash a cheque so I can buy a fern. The bank is out of money, and decides it ain’t my turn. I’m very diplomatic, as a way to get my bread. The lady wants to see ID. Is it something that I said?”

You won’t learn too much about it in the corporate media, but depositors at nearly 200 banks across the U.S. have found that it wasn’t their turn since the credit crunch began in 2007. A friend of mine in San Diego told me that people he knew there were worried that their local bank might fail any day, and so many people are keeping cash on hand – just in case.

Now the media is filled with talk of banking reform, but that is all it is – talk. Talk is cheap, but unsecured credit certainly isn’t! Monopolistic corporations get revolving credit facilities in the billions of dollars at 0.5% interest, while the rest of us pay 19% or more on credit cards. Buy in bulk and save, ya know.

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) – a G20 project at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) – recently met in Toronto (prior to the summit) to hammer out banking reform details and we can expect a new Basel-III Capital Accord (the latest in international banking standards) out of Basel, Switzerland sometime after the G20 Summit in Seoul, Korea in the fall.

But the new accord won’t help us. It is designed to save the banks from their own foolish recklessness. Thanks to the G20, the rest of us get a 50% defecit reduction under new fiscal consolidation. So the banks get their bailouts and go back to record profits, while we get our social programs slashed and stuck with the tax bill!

But Muldaur doesn’t just touch on finance in The Diplomat, she also talks about society in general and things that we can all relate to far too well – like how spoiled we are:

“People talking to themselves, walking around, polluting the air with that cellphone sound. I’m very diplomatic. I pretend that I don’t hear. Hey, I know all their secrets, but they have nothing to fear.”

Released on Stony Plain Records in 2009, Garden of Joy is reminiscent of her days with The Kweskin Jug Band and albums like Pottery Pie. She has returned to her roots and sounds as great as ever! I highly recommend this one for longtime fans and newcomers alike.

The Diplomat – Garden of Joy (Stony Plain Records, 6 October 2009)
Garden Of Joy – Garden of Joy (Stony Plain Records, 6 October 2009)
It Ain’t The Meat, It’s The Motion – Meet Me Where They Play the Blues (Telarc, 27 April 1999)
Power in Music – Meet Me at Midnite (Shout Factory, 30 August 1994)
Without a Friend Like You – Louisiana Love Call (Shout Factory, 24 August 1992)

Biography from MariaMuldaur.com:

Maria Muldaur’s musical roots run deep. Born and raised in New York City’s Greenwich Village, Muldaur was surrounded by bluegrass, old-timey, jazz, blues and gospel music, but her very first musical influences were from the records of country and western singers Hank Williams, Kitty Wells, Hank Snow and Ernest Tubb. At age five, she would sing Kitty Wells’ “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels” while her aunt accompanied her on the piano. As a teenager, Maria tuned into early rhythm and blues and was an avid fan of Fats Domino, Little Richard, Clyde McPhatter and Ruth Brown. She became interested in the girl groups coming onto the scene and formed her own, The Cashmeres, while in high school.

As pop radio became less soulful, Maria turned to the wealth of American roots music that was being rediscovered right in her own backyard. On any given day, she could stroll through Washington Square Park in the Village and hear blues, jug band, gospel and old-timey music. Soon she was hanging out and joining in on nightly jams and song swaps called hootenannies.

In the Village, Maria soon became involved with The Friends of Old Timey Music, a group of that traveled to the rural South to find legendary artists like Doc Watson, Bukka White, Skip James and Mississippi John Hurt, then bring them north to present them in concert to urban audiences. Aspiring young musicians like John Sebastian, Bob Dylan, John Hammond, Jr. and Muldaur were both pursuing and creating a new wave in American roots music.

“We used to have after-hours jams on Saturday nights,” says Maria. “Blues legends like the Reverend Gary Davis would come over. I found myself sitting at the feet of not only him, but Mississippi John Hurt, Son House and blues diva Victoria Spivey.” Deeply inspired by the pure mountain music of Doc Watson and the Watson Family, Maria left the intense New York scene and traveled to North Carolina to learn fiddle. During her extended visits with the Watson family, she soaked up Appalachian music and culture from the nightly gatherings on Doc’s back porch.

After returning to New York from one of her Southern excursions, Maria was approached by John Sebastian, David Grisman and several friends who had formed a jug band and were about to record for Spivey Records. Victoria Spivey, owner of the label, encouraged the young band members to add Maria to their Even Dozen Jug Band. In preparation for the recording, Maria and her bandmates pored through hundreds of old blues and jug band 78s. Among these vintage gems were recordings by Memphis Minnie, ma Rainey and Bessie Smith.

When her bandmates went off to college, Maria migrated to Boston and joined the popular Jim Kweskin Jug Band. Her first recorded song with them was “I’m a Woman,” the anthem of feminine power and joyful sexuality. It has been her theme song ever since. The Kweskin Band recorded several albums together and during this time Maria married and had a daughter, Jennie, with fellow bandmate Geoff Muldaur. When the group disbanded in 1968, the couple remained with Reprise, recording two acclaimed albums, Pottery Pie and Sweet Potatoes. By this time, they were residing in Woodstock, New York and became part of a new musical community that included Bob Dylan, The Band, Paul Butterfield, Janis Joplin’s Full Tilt Boogie Band and many other notable artists. These musicians had already made the transition from acoustic music to a more full-blown contemporary (and lucrative) electric sound. The musical environment was fertile and led to creative collaboration. “During numerous all-night jam sessions, musicians like Paul Butterfield and Rick Danko encouraged me to express myself with the raw power and energy that would equal the intensity of their playing.” Ironically, it was Geoff who joined Butterfield to form Better Days, thus dissolving the musical and marital partnership with Maria.

On a visit to New York City, Maria had a chance encounter with Mo Ostin, the president of Reprise Records. Upon learning that she and Geoff were no longer together, Ostin offered Maria the opportunity to make her first solo album. Maria Muldaur went platinum in two years and forever enshrined Maria in the minds of baby boomers the world over. “Midnight at the Oasis” remains to this day a staple song on multi-format radio. Four albums on Warner Brothers followed including her acclaimed second disc, Waitress in a Donut Shop, which contained her next hit single, a remake of “I’m A Woman.” She invited her friends and musical heroes to join her musical adventures and the list is a who’s who of the true lasting greats in American music: Dr. John, Ry Cooder, Paul Butterfield, Lowell George, Linda Ronstadt, Stevie Wonder, Jr. Walker, James Booker, Benny Carter, J.J. Cale, Kenny Burrell, Doc Watson and Hoagy Carmichael to name a few.

In the eighties, Maria recorded two critically acclaimed jazz albums, two gospel albums and one album of swing tunes for “kids of all ages.” Sweet and Slow, a duet album with longtime collaborator Dr. John, featured songs by Fats Waller, Duke Ellington and another of Maria’s blues heroines, Sippie Wallace. She also toured extensively with her band both in the States and abroad. Her frequent gigs with Dr. John led to a growing appreciation and fondness for the New Orleans sound. She incorporated that flavor into her own musical repertoire and dubbed this gumbo of straight ahead blues, R&B and Louisiana music, “bluesiana.”

In 1992, Maria signed with Black Top Records. Louisiana Love Call, recorded in her beloved New Orleans, came at a time when American roots music began to experience a gigantic worldwide surge in popularity. The album featured guest appearances by Dr. John, Aaron and Charles Neville, accordionist Zachary Richard and guitar guru Amos Garrett. Instantly embraced by critics and fans alike, with impressive accolades coming in from everywhere, Louisiana Love Call was hailed as the best album of her career. Rolling Stone, People, Entertainment Weekly and Billboard, adult alternative radio and blues radio raved. The album was awarded “Best Adult Alternative Album of the Year” by the National Association of Independent Record Distributors. She also garnered a nomination for “Outstanding Blues Album” from the Bay Area Music Awards. The follow-up, Meet Me at Midnite, also won wide critical acclaim and was nominated for the WC Handy Blues Award. Maria holds the distinction of being Black Top’s best-selling artist.

Maria Muldaur continued her lifelong musical odyssey with her debut album on Telarc Blues, Fanning the Flames. Recorded deep in the bayou country of Louisiana, Fanning the Flames was steeped in the fervent blues traditions of the South. Longtime soul sisters Mavis Staples, Bonnie Raitt and Ann Peebles joined Maria on several tracks as well as slide guitar wizard Sonny Landreth and R&B crooner Johnny Adams. Fanning the Flames garnered widespread critical acclaim and eventually cracked the Billboard Blues Chart.

Continuing her love affair with the “bluesiana” sound, Muldaur made songwriter Bruce Cockburn’s “Southland of the Heart” the title cut for her second Telarc recording in 1998. As People magazine wrote, “Muldaur has got the blues… once you zero in on the emotional nuances of her finely weathered drawl, you’ll hear an inspired change of heart – her voice becomes an oasis for troubled souls.”

Dedicated to the incomparable pianist/vocalist Charles Brown, her 1999 release, Meet Me Where They Play the Blues, featured the last recorded appearance by the inventor of the “West Coast Blues.” Too ill to make it into the studio, Brown’s vocals on “Gee Baby, Ain’t I Good to You” were recorded in a nursing home. In fact, Muldaur had originally chosen many of the songs for this project with Brown’s piano playing in mind. Brown died that same year, but the music and spirit of this great Texas blues balladeer live on through this amazing project.

Muldaur’s more recent Tealrc efforts include A Woman Alone with the Blues, a 2003 tribute to jazz icon Peggy Lee, and the equally jazzy Love Wants To Dance, a 2004 collection of songs about love’s alternately bright and melancholy sides. Heart of Mine, a collection of love songs originally penned by legendary balladeer Bob Dylan, followed in August 2006.

Her newest album, Yes We Can!, is set for release on July 22, 2008. The album showcases the work of some of the most socially conscious songwriters of the past half-century: Bob Dylan, Marvin Gaye, Allen Toussaint, Earl King and Garth Brooks, to name a few. Throughout the album’s thirteen tracks, a host of well known progressive voices, collectively dubbed The Women’s Voices for Peace Choir, help Muldaur shed the light and sharpen the focus on the precarious state of the world and its future. Included on the high-profile guest list are Bonnie Raitt, Joan Baez, Jane Fonda, Odetta, Phoebe Snow, Holly Near and several others. “Most of these women have boldly and tirelessly been lifting their voices for peace, non-violence and social justice their whole lives,” says Muldaur, “and their commitment to these causes has been deeply inspiring to me over the years. It is our hope that our efforts here will inspire minds and hearts and that these songs will become a Soundtrack to the Change we must all become a part of.”