Maria Muldaur
By All Music Guide
By All Music Guide
Muldaur was born Maria DAmato on September 12, 1943, in New York. As a child, she loved country & western music and began singing it with her aunt at age five; during her teenage years, she moved on to R&B, early rock & roll, and girl group pop, and in high school formed a group in the latter style called the Cashmeres. Growing up in the Greenwich Village area, however, she naturally became fascinated with its booming early-60s folk revival and soon began participating in jam sessions. She also moved to North Carolina for a while to study Appalachian-style fiddle with Doc Watson. Back in New York, she was invited to join the Even Dozen Jug Band, a revivalist group that included John Sebastian, David Grisman, and Stefan Grossman; they had secured a recording deal with blueswoman Victoria Spiveys label and she wanted them to add some sex appeal. The young DAmato got a crash course in early lues, particularly the Memphis scene that spawned many of the original jug bands, and counted Memphis Minnie as one of her chief influences.
Elektra Records bought out the Even Dozen Jug Bands contract and released their self-titled debut album in 1964; however, true to their name, the bands unwieldy size made them an expensive booking on the club and coffeehouse circuit and they soon disbanded. Many of the members went off to college and, in 1964, DAmato moved to the Boston-area town of Cambridge, home to another vibrant folk scene. She quickly joined the Jim Kweskin Jug Band and began an affair with singer Geoff Muldaur; the couple eventually married and had a daughter, Jenni, who would later become a singer in her own right. When the Kweskin band broke up in 1968, the couple stayed with their label (Reprise) and began recording together as Geoff & Maria Muldaur. They moved to Woodstock, NY, to take advantage of the burgeoning music scene there and issued two albums -- 1970s Pottery Pie and 1971s Sweet Potatoes -- before Geoff departed in 1972 to form Better Days with Paul Butterfield, a move that signaled not only the end of the couples musical partnership, but their marriage as well.
Initially unsure about her musical future, Muldaurs friends encouraged her to pursue a solo career, as did Reprise president Mo Ostin. Muldaur went to Los Angeles and recorded her self-titled debut album in 1973, scoring a massive Top Ten pop hit with Midnight at the Oasis. Showcasing Muldaurs playfully sultry crooning, the Middle Eastern-themed song became a pop radio staple for years to come and also made session guitarist Amos Garrett a frequent Muldaur collaborator for years to come. Muldaurs next album, 1974s Waitress in a Donut Shop, featured a hit remake of her Even Dozen-era signature tune, Im a Woman. Three more Reprise albums followed over the course of the 70s, generally with the cream of the L.A. session crop, but also with increasingly diminishing results.
Around 1980, Muldaur became a born-again Christian; she recorded a live album of raditional gospel songs, Gospel Nights, for the smaller Takoma label in 1980, and moved into full-fledged CCM with 1982s There Is a Love, recorded for the Christian label Myrrh. However, this new direction did not prove permanent, and for 1983s Sweet and Slow, Muldaur recorded an album of jazz and lues standards (many with longtime cohort Dr. John on piano) that created exactly the mood its title suggested. 1986s jazzy Transbluecency won a year-end critics award from the New York Times. Muldaur spent the rest of the 80s touring, often with Dr. John, and also began acting in musicals, appearing in productions of Pump Boys and Dinettes and The Pirates of Penzance. In 1990, she recorded an album of classic country songs, On the Sunny Side, that was specifically geared toward children; it proved a surprising success, both critically and among its intended audience.
Partly inspired by Dr. Johns New Orleans obsessions, Muldaur signed to the rootsy Black Top label in 1992 and cut Louisiana Love Call, which established her as a versatile stylist well-versed in the lues, gospel, New Orleans R&B, Memphis blues, and soul. The album won wide acclaim as one of the best works of her career, offering a more organic, stripped-down approach than her 70s pop albums, and became the best-selling record in the Black Top catalog. Her 1994 follow-up, Meet Me at Midnite, was nominated for a W.C. Handy Award. Muldaur next cut a jazzier outing for the Canadian roots label Stony Plain, 1995s Jazzabelle. She subsequently signed with Telarc and returned to her previous direction, making her label debut with 1996s well-received Fanning the Flames. 1998s Southland of the Heart was a less bluesy outing recorded in Los Angeles and was released the same year as a second childrens album, Swingin in the Rain, a collection of swing tunes and pop
ovelties from the 30s and 40s. 1999s Meet Me Where They Play the Blues was intended to be a collaboration with West Coast blues piano legend Charles Brown, but Browns health problems prevented him from contributing much (just one vocal on Gee Baby, Aint I Good to You); thus, the project became more of a tribute.
Muldaur moved back to Stony Plain for 2001s Richland Woman Blues, a tribute to early lues artists (particularly women) inspired by a visit to Memphis Minnies grave. Featuring a variety of special guest instrumentalists, Richland Woman Blues was nominated for a Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Album. The childrens album Animal Crackers in My Soup: The Songs of Shirley Temple appeared in 2002. The next year saw the release of Woman Alone with the Blues, a collection of songs associated with Peggy Lee, on Telarc Records. Love Wants to Dance followed in 2004, also on Telarc. The mostly acoustic Sweet Lovin Ol Soul was issued by Stony Plain in 2005, followed by Heart of Mine: Love Songs of Bob Dylan on Telarc in 2006. Songs for the Young at Heart was also released in 2006.
