March 22–29, 2001

disc quicks| roots

Maria Muldaur

Richland Woman Blues

(Stony Plain)

Maria Muldaur made her earliest recordings with the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, the folks who taught folkies the meaning of ragged-but-right. Kweskin made great, imaginative energetic music that borrowed heavily from the African-American idioms of the early part of this century. When that band broke up, Muldaur went on to make more pop/band-oriented tunes ("Midnight at the Oasis") — charming but not compelling. Richland Woman Blues returns to Muldaur’s earliest inspirations: blues and gospel. Muldaur renders tribute to people like Mississippi John Hurt, Memphis Minnie, Bessie Smith and Fred McDowell by echoing their early, acoustic settings. Maria’s vocal solos are varied by duets with Alvin Youngblood Hart, Taj Mahal, Angela Strehli, Bonnie Raitt and Tracy Nelson, making this CD a collector’s item. John Sebastian, Amos Garrett and Roy Rogers all play impressive acoustic blues guitar. The results are so powerful it begs the question: How can Muldaur ever go back to burying all that unvarnished emotion behind a band?

—Mary Armstrong