Geoff Muldaur’s recent comeback albums (Secret Handshake and Password) have sparked his old label to release this 12-track compilation of tunes from the early years. Long out of print, the albums Muldaur made for Flying Fish Records were recorded in 1978 and 1979. They have languished in oblivion until now. Lovers of rootsy, bluesy guitar-based music owe Rounder a debt of gratitude for reclaiming them and providing us with this sparkling anthology.
Richard Thompson is quoted on the back cover saying, “There are only three great blues singers in the world, and Geoff Muldaur is two of them.” It’s a good joke, and a clever way to get Richard Thompson’s name on your album sleeve, but Thompson doesn’t play on this record. You don’t miss him though, because fly fisherman extraordinaire Amos Garrett is on board, and he is a string wizard!
Geoff Muldaur started singing with the Jim Kweskin Jug Band in the ’60s, playing to the Folk Revival crowd. In the ’70s, he was a member of Paul Butterfield’s Better Days. His solo albums found him operating in a similar genre, sort of folk-blues with a twist of The Band for good measure. Muldaur’s bluesy voice is not that of a Muddy Waters or a Howlin’ Wolf … it is more someone crying in the wilderness, a true white blues singer. He doesn’t attempt to simulate a “Black” sound, he is just a guy singin’ the blues.
He has great taste in tunes too. Muldaur covers Sleepy John Estes’ “Sloppy Drunk Blues” and Wolf’s “Forty-Four Blues” too, making them his own. He also digs up a selection of traditional tunes that he stamped with a syncopated beat, a funky horn chart and Amos’s remarkable, sinewy guitar pickin’.
The album closes with a couple of Muldaur tunes. “Chicken Stew Part 1,” which Geoff calls ” … semi-autobiographical. I’ve been writing Part 2 ever since.” It sounds a bit like a skipping song done by Charles Mingus! Try to imagine that. “Dance of the Colored Elves” is a mandolin piece that features Michael Melford, and sounds … just like its title says!
Bravo to Rounder for making this music available.
(Rounder Records, 2001)
