Maria Muldaur - Naughty, Bawdy And Blue [2007]

Jazz/Blues

soprano from the 30's

If you ever wondered who, if anyone, was going to carry on the tradition of great female blues singers now that the likes of Bessie Smith, Mamie Smith, Sippy Wallace and Memphis Minnie have long been gone from the scene look no further. This is the third album in series that she started in 2002 to cover the old great blues singers. In the present album she covers the above-mentioned singers and others in a style in which they would surely recognize their style. These are the classic female blues singers of the 1920's and 30's. Maria is in fast company but she does not miss a beat.

Backed by the perfect fit of James Dapogny's Chicago Jazz Band, who often performed with Sippie Wallace and whose sound seems to have time-traveled without alteration, Muldaur moves through a dozen vaudeville blues numbers with integrity and authenticity, and never resorts to campy riffs or faux black dialect. Her expressive soprano has taken on a depth and heft through the years, and she's smart to deliver such suggestive lines as "I love the way he whips my cream" (from "Handy Man") or "He's a deep-sea diver with a stroke that can't go wrong" (from Smith's "Empty Bed Blues") with a subtle wink, preferring to let an insinuating trumpet chase home the joke. The album finds its highlight with "Separation Blues," a duet with Bonnie Raitt, who introduced Wallace to new audiences on her tours of the '70s and '80s. Muldaur and Raitt--corduroy and burlap--harmonize with the ease that comes from decades of friendship, and from the joy of preserving and appreciating one of America’s purest musical forms.

1. Down Home Blues
2. Up The Country Blues
3. Separation Blues
4. A Good Man Is Hard To Find
5. Handy Man
6. New Orleans Hop Scop Blues
7. Smile
8. TB Blues
9. One Hour Mama
10. Empty Bed Blues
11. Early Every Morn
12. Yonder Come The Blues

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