Maria Muldaur
Encyclopedia
Maria Muldaur is a folk
-blues
singer who was part of the American folk music revival
in the early 1960s. She recorded the 1974 hit song
"Midnight at the Oasis
," and continues to record albums in the folk traditions.
.
Muldaur began her career in the early 1960s as Maria D'Amato, performing with John Sebastian
, David Grisman
, and Stefan Grossman
as a member of the Even Dozen Jug Band
. She then joined Jim Kweskin & His Jug Band as a featured vocalist and occasional violinist. During this time, she was part of the Greenwich Village scene that included Bob Dylan
, and some of her recollections of the period, particularly with respect to Dylan, appear in Martin Scorsese
's 2005 documentary film
, No Direction Home
. She married fellow Jug Band member Geoff Muldaur
, and after the Kweskin outfit broke up the two of them produced two albums. She began her solo career when their marriage ended in 1972, but retained her married name.
Her first solo album Maria Muldaur, released in 1973, contained her hit single "Midnight at the Oasis
", which reached number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100
in 1974. It also peaked at number 21 in the UK Singles Chart
. Later that year, she released her second album Waitress In A Donut Shop. This included a re-recording of "I'm a Woman
", the Leiber and Stoller number first associated with Peggy Lee
and a standout feature from her Jug Band days. The title of this album is taken from a line in another song on the album, "Sweetheart" by Ken Burgan.
Around this time, Muldaur established a relationship with Grateful Dead
. Opening for some Grateful Dead shows in the summer of 1974, with John Kahn
, bassist of the Jerry Garcia Band
, would eventually earn her a seat in that group in the late 1970s, as a backing vocalist.
Muldaur appeared on Super Jam
(1989), the live recording of the German
TV series Villa Fantastica with Brian Auger
on piano
, Pete York
on drums
, Dick Morrissey
on tenor saxophone
, Roy Williams on trombone
, Harvey Weston on bass
and Zoot Money
, also on vocals.
Muldaur continued to perform, tour, and record after her success in the mid-1970s, including a turn at the Teatro ZinZanni
in 2001.
Her 2005 release Sweet Lovin' Ol' Soul was nominated for both a W.C. Handy Award and a Grammy award in the Traditional Blues Category
.
– May 1975
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
-blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
singer who was part of the American folk music revival
American folk music revival
The American folk music revival was a phenomenon in the United States that began during the 1940s and peaked in popularity in the mid-1960s. Its roots went earlier, and performers like Josh White, Burl Ives, Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Richard Dyer-Bennett, Oscar Brand, Jean Ritchie, John Jacob...
in the early 1960s. She recorded the 1974 hit song
Song
In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...
"Midnight at the Oasis
Midnight at the Oasis
A version of this song was recorded by the group Brand New Heavies, attributed to "Brand New Heavies featuring N'Dea Davenport". This version reached #13 in the UK in 1994 and was their biggest hit up until the departure of Davenport, when Sometimes made #11....
," and continues to record albums in the folk traditions.
Career
Muldaur grew up in New York City, where she attended Hunter College High SchoolHunter College High School
Hunter College High School is a New York City secondary school for intellectually gifted students located on Manhattan's Upper East Side. It is administered by Hunter College, a senior college of the City University of New York. Although it is not operated by the New York City Department of...
.
Muldaur began her career in the early 1960s as Maria D'Amato, performing with John Sebastian
John Sebastian
John Benson Sebastian Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and autoharpist. He is best known as a founder of The Lovin' Spoonful, a band inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000...
, David Grisman
David Grisman
David Grisman is an American bluegrass/newgrass mandolinist and composer of acoustic music. In the early 1990s, he started the Acoustic Disc record label in an effort to preserve and spread acoustic or instrumental music.-Biography:Grisman grew up in Hackensack, New Jersey...
, and Stefan Grossman
Stefan Grossman
Stefan Grossman is an American acoustic fingerstyle guitarist and singer, music producer and educator, and co-founder of Kicking Mule records.-Early life and influences:Born in Brooklyn, New York, to Herbert and Ruth Grossman...
as a member of the Even Dozen Jug Band
Even Dozen Jug Band
The Even Dozen Jug Band was founded in 1963 by Stefan Grossman and Peter Siegel in New York City, New York...
. She then joined Jim Kweskin & His Jug Band as a featured vocalist and occasional violinist. During this time, she was part of the Greenwich Village scene that included Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, and some of her recollections of the period, particularly with respect to Dylan, appear in Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
's 2005 documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
, No Direction Home
No Direction Home
No Direction Home is a documentary film by Martin Scorsese that traces the life of Bob Dylan, and his impact on 20th century American popular music and culture. The film does not cover Dylan's entire career; it concentrates on the period between Dylan's arrival in New York in January 1961 and his...
. She married fellow Jug Band member Geoff Muldaur
Geoff Muldaur
Geoff Muldaur is an American founding member of the Jim Kweskin Jug Band of Cambridge, Massachusetts; a member of Paul Butterfield's Better Days; and an accomplished solo guitarist, singer, and songwriter....
, and after the Kweskin outfit broke up the two of them produced two albums. She began her solo career when their marriage ended in 1972, but retained her married name.
Her first solo album Maria Muldaur, released in 1973, contained her hit single "Midnight at the Oasis
Midnight at the Oasis
A version of this song was recorded by the group Brand New Heavies, attributed to "Brand New Heavies featuring N'Dea Davenport". This version reached #13 in the UK in 1994 and was their biggest hit up until the departure of Davenport, when Sometimes made #11....
", which reached number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
in 1974. It also peaked at number 21 in the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
. Later that year, she released her second album Waitress In A Donut Shop. This included a re-recording of "I'm a Woman
I'm a Woman (song)
The song "I'm a Woman" was written by famed songwriting duo Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, and was first recorded in 1962 by Christine Kittrell. It was also the title song to Peggy Lee's 1963 album I'm a Woman . It was a minor hit single for Lee, reaching number 54 on U.S...
", the Leiber and Stoller number first associated with Peggy Lee
Peggy Lee
Peggy Lee was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress in a career spanning six decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local radio to singing with Benny Goodman's big band, she forged a sophisticated persona, evolving into a multi-faceted artist and...
and a standout feature from her Jug Band days. The title of this album is taken from a line in another song on the album, "Sweetheart" by Ken Burgan.
Around this time, Muldaur established a relationship with Grateful Dead
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...
. Opening for some Grateful Dead shows in the summer of 1974, with John Kahn
John Kahn
John Kahn was an American rock bass player. For a period of about twenty five years Kahn was Jerry Garcia's principal collaborator outside of the Grateful Dead.-Biography:...
, bassist of the Jerry Garcia Band
Jerry Garcia Band
The Jerry Garcia Band was a San Francisco Bay Area rock band led by Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. Garcia founded the band in 1975; it remained the most important of his various side-projects until his death in 1995...
, would eventually earn her a seat in that group in the late 1970s, as a backing vocalist.
Muldaur appeared on Super Jam
Super Jam (album)
Super Jam is a live studio recording featuring jazz, pop and traditional standards, many of them film scores, included in the German TV series, Villa Fantastica...
(1989), the live recording of the German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
TV series Villa Fantastica with Brian Auger
Brian Auger
Brian Auger is a jazz and rock keyboardist, who has specialized in playing the Hammond organ.A jazz pianist, bandleader, session musician and Hammond B3 player, Auger has played or toured with artists such as Rod Stewart, Tony Williams, Jimi Hendrix, Sonny Boy Williamson, Led Zeppelin, Eric Burdon...
on piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, Pete York
Pete York
Pete York is a rock drummer who has been performing since the 1960s.-Early life:...
on drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, Dick Morrissey
Dick Morrissey
Richard Edwin "Dick" Morrissey was a British jazz musician and composer. He played the tenor sax, soprano sax and flute.- Background :...
on tenor saxophone
Tenor saxophone
The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...
, Roy Williams on trombone
Trombone
The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
, Harvey Weston on bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
and Zoot Money
Zoot Money
George Bruno Money, known as Zoot Money is a British vocalist, keyboardist and bandleader best known for his playing of the Hammond organ and association with his Big Roll Band...
, also on vocals.
Muldaur continued to perform, tour, and record after her success in the mid-1970s, including a turn at the Teatro ZinZanni
Teatro ZinZanni
Teatro ZinZanni is a circus dinner theater that began in the neighborhood of Lower Queen Anne in Seattle, Washington. It has since expanded to a site on the waterfront at Pier 29 on the San Francisco, California The Embarcadero....
in 2001.
Her 2005 release Sweet Lovin' Ol' Soul was nominated for both a W.C. Handy Award and a Grammy award in the Traditional Blues Category
Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album
The Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album was awarded from 1983 to 2011. From 2001 to 2003 the award recipients included the producers and engineers as well as the artists...
.
Even Dozen Jug Band
- The Even Dozen Jug BandThe Even Dozen Jug Band (album)The Even Dozen Jug Band is the debut and only album by the American jug band Even Dozen Jug Band, released in 1964.Founded in 1963, the Even Dozen Jug Band recorded this, their only recording for Elektra Records...
(1963) (Elektra, EKS-7246) (credited as Maria D'Amato)
Jim Kweskin & The Jug Band
- Jug Band Music (1964)(Vanguard)
- See Reverse Side for Title (1965, credited as Maria D'Amato) (Vanguard, VDS-79234)
- The Best of Jim Kweskin & The Jug Band (1966, compilation, credited as Maria D'Amato) (Vanguard, VDS-79270)
- Garden of Joy (1967) (Reprise)
Geoff & Maria Muldaur
- Pottery Pie (1968) (Reprise, RS-6350)
- Sweet Potatoes (1971) (Reprise)
Solo
- Maria MuldaurMaria Muldaur (album)Maria Muldaur is the eponymous 1973 first solo release of musician Maria Muldaur. The album includes Muldaur's best-known single, "Midnight at the Oasis", which charted at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and "Three Dollar Bill", which charted at #7 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary charts...
(1973) (Reprise) - Waitress In A Donut Shop (1974) (Reprise)
- Sweet Harmony (1976) (Reprise)
- Southern Winds (1978) (Warner)
- Open Your Eyes (1979) (Warner)
- Gospel Nights (1980) (Takoma)
- There Is A Love (1982) (Myrrh RecordsMyrrh RecordsMyrrh Records, also known as Myrrh Worship, is a Christian music record label. According to Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music, the label was instrumental in developing a popular following for Contemporary Christian music as the label that first published music by Barry McGuire, 2nd Chapter of...
) - Sweet And Slow (1983) (Tudor)
- Transblucency (1986) (Uptown)
- Live In London (1987) (Making Waves)
- On The Sunny Side (1990) (Music For Little People)
- Louisiana Love Call (1992) (Black Top)
- Jazzabelle (1994) (Stony Plain)
- Meet Me At Midnite (1994) (Black Top)
- Fanning The Flames (1996) (Telarc)
- Southland of the Heart (1998) (Telarc)
- Swingin' In The Rain (1998) (Music For Little People)
- Meet Me Where We Play The Blues (1999) (Telarc)
- Richland Woman Blues (2001) (Stony Plain) (w/Taj MahalTaj Mahal (musician)Henry Saint Clair Fredericks , who uses the stage name Taj Mahal, is an American Grammy Award winning blues musician. He incorporates elements of world music into his music...
, Bonnie RaittBonnie RaittBonnie Lynn Raitt is an American blues singer-songwriter and a renowned slide guitar player. During the 1970s, Raitt released a series of acclaimed roots-influenced albums which incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk and country, but she is perhaps best known for her more commercially...
and other guest artists) - Animal Crackers In My Soup (2002) (Music For Little People)
- A Woman Alone With The Blues (Remembering Peggy Lee) (2003) (Telarc)
- Sisters And Brothers (With Eric Bibb and Rory Block) (2004) (Telarc)
- Love Wants To Dance (2004) (Telarc)
- Sweet Lovin' Ol' Soul (Old Highway 61 Revisited) (2005) (Stony Plain) (w/Del Rey, Steve James and other guest artists)
- Heart of Mine: Maria Muldaur Sings Love Songs of Bob Dylan (2006) (Telarc)
- Songs For The Young At Heart (2006) (MFLP)
- Naughty, Bawdy, And Blue (2007) (Stony Plain)
- Yes We Can! (2008) (Telarc)
- Maria Muldaur & Her Garden of Joy (2009) (Stony Plain)
- Steady Love (2011)(Stony Plain)
Other contributions
- Johnny's Blues: A Tribute To Johnny CashJohnny's Blues: A Tribute To Johnny CashJohnny's Blues: A Tribute To Johnny Cash is a 2003 compilation album, released by Northern Blues Music, of blues-oriented songs made popular by Johnny Cash, sung by various Canadian and American performers.- Track listing :...
(Northern Blues)
Quotations
NMENME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
– May 1975