Maria Muldaur

Maria Muldaur first gained widespread recognition through her sultry 1970s pop classic “Midnight at the Oasis,” yet her lengthy trajectory has established her as a widely admired interpreter across virtually every variety of American roots music, encompassing blues, early jazz, gospel, folk, country, and R&B. Born Maria D’Amato, she initially reached a national listenership while performing with Jim Kweskin & the Jug Band, starting with the 1963 release Jug Band Music, where the ensemble delivered vintage folk and blues in a lively, engaging manner. Once that group dissolved, Geoff and Maria—who had wed—issued two highly praised records, Pottery Pie in 1968 and Sweet Potatoes in 1972, that mixed folk, blues, jazz, and gospel elements. Following their divorce, Muldaur launched a solo path; her 1973 self-titled debut merged country, blues, and pop to produce the major hit single “Midnight at the Oasis.”

She explored blues more deeply on 1974’s Waitress in a Donut Shop, which yielded another strong single, “I’m a Woman,” though subsequent releases found her navigating tensions between personal artistic leanings and label demands. Returning to independent outlets, she delivered the live Gospel Nights in 1980 after embracing Christianity. Secular material resumed with 1983’s Sweet and Slow, shaped by vintage jazz and blues, and over the ensuing three decades she applied her voice to swing on 1998’s Swingin’ in the Rain, robust R&B on 1994’s Meet Me at Midnite, New Orleans grooves on 1992’s Louisiana Love Call, polished double-entendre blues on 1999’s Meet Me Where They Play the Blues, activist songs on 2008’s Yes We Can!, and children’s repertoire on 2010’s Barnyard Dance: Jug Band Music for Kids. Throughout, Muldaur has paired her stylistic range with the romantic sensuality that has informed much of her strongest work since her earliest days.

Born Maria D’Amato on September 12, 1942, in New York, she developed an early affection for country & western music and began singing alongside her aunt at age five; by her teenage years she had shifted toward R&B and early rock & roll, forming the girl group the Cashmeres while still in high school. Living near Greenwich Village, she became captivated by the vibrant early-’60s folk revival and soon joined local jam sessions, later spending time in North Carolina studying Appalachian-style fiddle under Doc Watson. Back in New York she was asked to join the Even Dozen Jug Band, a revivalist ensemble that also featured John Sebastian, David Grisman, and Stefan Grossman; the group secured a deal with Victoria Spivey’s label, which sought to add some sex appeal. The young D’Amato quickly absorbed early blues, especially the Memphis sound that gave rise to many original jug bands, and counted Memphis Minnie among her primary influences.

Elektra Records acquired the Even Dozen Jug Band’s contract and issued their self-titled debut in 1964, but the ensemble’s large size rendered bookings costly on the club and coffeehouse circuit, prompting its breakup. Many members entered college, and in 1964 D’Amato relocated to Cambridge, Massachusetts, another lively folk hub. She promptly joined the Jim Kweskin Jug Band and began a relationship with singer Geoff Muldaur; the pair married and had a daughter, Jenni, who would herself become a singer. When the Kweskin band ended in 1968, the couple remained with Reprise and recorded as Geoff & Maria Muldaur. They settled in Woodstock, New York, to benefit from its growing music community and released Pottery Pie in 1968 and Sweet Potatoes in 1972 before their musical and personal partnership concluded, with Geoff later forming Better Days alongside Paul Butterfield.

Initially uncertain about her direction, Muldaur was urged by friends and Reprise president Mo Ostin to pursue solo work. She traveled to Los Angeles to record her 1973 debut, Maria Muldaur, which scored a substantial Top Ten pop hit with “Midnight at the Oasis.” Showcasing her playfully sultry crooning, the Middle Eastern-themed track became a pop-radio fixture for years and helped establish session guitarist Amos Garrett as a recurring Muldaur collaborator. Her follow-up, 1974’s Waitress in a Donut Shop, contained a hit remake of her Even Dozen-era signature “I’m a Woman.” Three further Reprise albums appeared through the ’70s, typically featuring top Los Angeles session players, yet with steadily declining commercial impact.

Around 1980 Muldaur experienced a born-again Christian conversion. She cut the live traditional-gospel set Gospel Nights for Takoma in 1980 and explored full CCM with 1982’s There Is a Love on Myrrh. That path proved temporary; for 1983’s Sweet and Slow she returned to jazz and blues standards, again with longtime associate Dr. John on piano, evoking the relaxed atmosphere implied by the title. The 1986 jazz outing Transblucency earned a year-end critics’ prize from The New York Times. Muldaur spent the remainder of the ’80s touring, frequently with Dr. John, and began performing in musical theater productions of Pump Boys and Dinettes and The Pirates of Penzance. In 1990 she recorded the children-oriented country collection On the Sunny Side, which enjoyed unexpected critical and audience success.

Drawing partial inspiration from Dr. John’s New Orleans roots, Muldaur joined the Black Top label in 1992 and recorded Louisiana Love Call, confirming her command of blues, gospel, New Orleans R&B, Memphis blues, and soul. The album received broad praise as one of her finest achievements, adopting a more organic, stripped-down approach than her ’70s pop efforts and becoming the label’s best-selling release. Its 1994 successor, Meet Me at Midnite, earned a W.C. Handy Award nomination. She next explored jazzier territory for Canadian roots imprint Stony Plain on 1995’s Jazzabelle, then signed with Telarc for the well-received 1996 return Fanning the Flames. The less blues-oriented Southland of the Heart appeared in 1998, recorded in Los Angeles the same year as the second children’s album Swingin’ in the Rain, a set of swing and pop novelties from the ’30s and ’40s. Meet Me Where They Play the Blues, issued in 1999, had been planned as a collaboration with West Coast blues piano legend Charles Brown, yet Brown’s health limited his participation to one vocal on “Gee Baby, Ain’t I Good to You,” transforming the project into a tribute.

Muldaur returned to Stony Plain for 2001’s Richland Woman Blues, a salute to early female blues artists prompted by a visit to Memphis Minnie’s grave. Featuring numerous guest instrumentalists, the album received a Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Blues Album. The children’s collection Animal Crackers in My Soup: The Songs of Shirley Temple arrived in 2002, followed the next year by Woman Alone with the Blues, a Telarc set of Peggy Lee-associated material. Love Wants to Dance appeared in 2004, also on Telarc. The largely acoustic Sweet Lovin’ Ol’ Soul came out on Stony Plain in 2005, succeeded by Heart of Mine: Love Songs of Bob Dylan on Telarc in 2006. Songs for the Young at Heart was likewise released that year. In 2007 Muldaur completed the trilogy honoring female blues singers of the 1920s, ’30s, and ’40s with Naughty, Bawdy and Blue. The anti-war-themed Yes We Can!, featuring the Women’s Voices for Peace Choir, arrived in 2008.

She issued another children’s album, Barnyard Dance: Jug Band Music for Kids, in 2010, then the New Orleans-inflected Steady Love on Stony Plain in 2011. A holiday collection, Christmas at the Oasis, followed in 2013, and in 2018 Omnivore Recordings reissued her two Geoff Muldaur collaborations, Pottery Pie and Sweet Potatoes. Muldaur paid tribute to friend and influence Blue Lu Barker with 2018’s slyly sexy Don’t You Feel My Leg, a collection of jazz and blues standards. She discovered kindred spirits in Tuba Skinny, a New Orleans ensemble steeped in vintage jazz, blues, and jug band traditions. Admiring their approach, she proposed a joint project, resulting in the Stony Plain release Let’s Get Happy Together in 2021.