Geoff & Maria Muldaur – Pottery Pie; Sweet Potatoes

GEOFF & MARIA MULDAUR

Pottery Pie

Omnivore Recordings

omnivorerecordings.com/shop/pottery-pie/

Jim Kweskin & the Jug Band were early favorites of mine when I was first getting into music and record collecting as a kid in the 1960s so I was already familiar with (and a fan of) the husband and wife team of Geoff & Maria Muldaur – stalwarts of the Kweskin band – when they recorded Pottery Pie in 1968, the first of two LPs they would release as a duo. Remarkably, Pottery Pie and the other LP, Sweet Potatoes, have just recently been reissued for the first time in North America.

Geoff and Maria alternated lead vocals on Pottery Pie, an album that seemed to point in directions both would go on to explore later on. Geoff’s version of “Death Letter Blues,” for example, is the kind of track he’d record some years later as a member of Paul Butterfield’s Better Days, while Maria’s version of “Me and My Chauffeur Blues,” presaged the tribute to Memphis Minnie she would produce years later.

Geoff’s other highlights on Pottery Pie include a great version of “New Orleans Hopscop Blues,” originally recorded by Bessie Smith, that combines an updated classic blues feel with a New Orleans-style horn arrangement, and a soulful rendition of “Prairie Lullaby,” a classic recorded by Jimmie Rodgers in 1932, that features great playing by Bill Keith on pedal steel and an uncredited fiddler (who I suspect may have been Maria).

And I must mention Geoff’s fun version of “Brazil,” a classic Brazilian jazz tune that would go on to give Terry Gilliam’s film its name when he used this recording in the movie.

Among Maria’s highlights is her sexy definitive version of Bob Dylan’s “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” and the traditional gospel song “Trials, Troubles, Tribulations” with nice harmonies from Betsy Siggins.

But my absolute favorite track on Pottery Pie is Maria’s gorgeous version of Hoagy Carmichael’s “Georgia On My Mind,” with a sublime electric guitar solo by Amos Garrett, perhaps the first of many notable guitar solos Amos would play on albums with both Muldaurs.

GEOFF & MARIA MULDAUR

Sweet Potatoes

Omnivore Recordings

omnivorerecordings.com/shop/sweet-potatoes/

While Pottery Pie seemed to be equal parts Geoff and Maria, Geoff dominates Sweet Potatoes, their second and final LP, released in 1972. It’s a charming album, but just a tad disappointing that only three of the 10 songs featured Maria.

That said, some of my favorites of Geoff’s leads include “Havana Moon,” a very atypical Chuck Berry tune given a bluesy arrangement featuring Paul Butterfield on harmonica, and “Dardanella,” a New Orleans jazz standard whose intricate arrangement points at the kind of work Geoff would do decades later with his album of Bix Biederbecke material.

Another favorite is the languid but delightful version of Hoagy Carmichael’s “Lazy Bones,” with a lead vocal and patented guitar solo by Amos Garrett, that certainly presaged the duo album they recorded on Flying Fish after playing together in Paul Butterfield’s Better Days.

Maria’s three lead vocals are also highlights of Sweet Potatoes. These include “Blue Railroad Train,” a Delmore Bothers song that Doc Watson introduced to the folk revival in the mid’60s, and the title track, a lovely little number on which she’s accompanied by pianist Jeff Gutcheon, the song’s composer.

But my absolute favorite is Maria’s beautiful version of “Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be),” a jazz standard sung decades earlier by Billie Holiday. This version features another dreamy guitar solo by Amos as well as strings and woodwinds – including Geoff on clarinet. 

I should note also that the cover painting for Sweet Potatoes was by the great folk and blues performer and visual artist Eric Von Schmidt.

These two albums are much more than footnotes in the discographies of two artists would go on to give us – and still continue to give us a half-century later – much great music.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Michael Jerome Browne – Sliding Delta

MICHAEL JEROME BROWNE
Sliding Delta
Borealis 
michaeljeromebrowne.com

About 40 or so years ago, Marc Nerenberg excitedly told me about Michael Browne, a 14-year-old blues prodigy in Montreal. Soon, at a Sunday night hoot at the Yellow Door in Montreal, I heard him play and was suitably impressed by his obvious technique in playing traditional blues. But, as a much more mature 20- or 21-year-old, I wasn’t quite ready to take such a young kid seriously as a bluesman. I remember a similar reaction when I first met Colin Linden when he was 12 or 13.

Over the next years, I saw Michael play from time to time in coffee houses and, more often, busking on Prince Arthur Street or in the metro. It was obvious that both his technique and his understanding of the traditions were continuing to grow quickly. About 30 years ago, he began playing guitar and singing with the Stephen Barry Band – Montreal’s finest electric blues outfit. By then there was absolutely no question about taking Michael seriously.

With Michael continuing to develop as a solo performer on the street and with his lead vocals a highlight of several Stephen Barry Band albums, it was probably inevitable that he’d eventually get around to recording under his own name and in 1998 – by then known as Michael Jerome Browne – he released his self-titled debut. As I wrote in my Sing Out! magazine review, it was “an eclectic tour de force of various shades of the blues with some equally accomplished side excursions into Cajun and Appalachian music. Browne's soulful singing is matched by the depth of his instrumental powers on various guitars, banjos and fiddles.”

Since that debut, Michael has released a series of fine albums masterfully exploring a variety of traditional roots styles including various blues styles, Appalachian folk songs, Cajun music, and much more.

On Sliding Delta, Michael returns to the kind of early blues that first inspired him and it's a stunning selection of songs drawn from African American blues legends who were all gone by the time he got started four decades ago. Except for the final track, this is a purely solo album featuring Michael’s vocals and instrumental virtuosity – mostly on guitar but occasionally on banjo or mandolin or with added racked harp.

Without exception, I savored each of the 14 sublime performances, but a few of my very favorites include Mississippi John Hurt’s “Sliding Delta,” performed on the 12-string with a natural ease that is so reminiscent of Hurt himself; Memphis Minnie’s “Frisco Town,” a bouncy blues on which Michael shows how terrific the blues can be when played on the banjo; and Charley Patton’s “When Your Way Gets Dark,” on which he demonstrates how beautiful the interplay between voice and slide guitar can be on early Delta blues.

A couple of my other favorites – Henry Thomas’ infectious “Bull Doze Blues,” again played on the banjo (and it’s nice to hear someone playing a Thomas song other than “Fishing Blues”) and Crying Sam Collins’ “My Road is Rough and Rocky,” a variant of the better-known “Railroad Bill” – are drawn from the songster tradition that knew no boundaries between blues, folk songs, even early pop and jazz tunes.

Michael Jerome Browne, Mike Regenstreif & Eric Bibb (2005)

After playing solo on the first 13 tracks, Michael ends the album with a fine duet with the great Eric Bibb on “Choose Your Seat and Sit Down,” a spiritual originally recorded in the 1930s by Dock Reed and Vera Ward Hall.

Michael launches Sliding Delta with concerts here in Ottawa on Wednesday, January21, at Irene’s; and in Montreal on Saturday, January 24 at Petit Campus; and in Toronto on Sunday, January 25 at the Rivoli.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Various Artists – …. First Came Memphis Minnie

VARIOUS ARTISTS
…. First Came Memphis Minnie
Stony Plain 
stonyplainrecords.com

Memphis Minnie (1897-1973), who began her recording career in the early-1930s, was a pioneering and influential blues artist and certainly the most prominent example of a female blues singer from that era who accompanied herself on guitar. Until Minnie came along, female blues singers – like Bessie Smith, Victoria Spivey, Alberta Hunter and so many others – generally fronted traditional jazz bands or worked with a piano player. Minnie, though, could play guitar as well or better than any male artist and was a role model to generations of female musicians who followed in later decades.

…. First Came Memphis Minnie is a set of 13 songs from Memphis Minnie’s repertoire assembled by Maria Muldaur.

Maria, herself, is the dominant artist in the collection with eight songs taken from a couple of the terrific acoustic blues albums she’s done in recent years – two from Richland Woman Blues and six from Sweet Lovin’ Ol’ Soul – on which she’s backed by such great musicians as Del Rey, Steve James and Dave Earl. Two of the most exciting songs, “I’m Goin’ Back Home” and “She Put Me Outdoors,” are terrific duets with Alvin Youngblood Hart playing Joe McCoy to Maria’s Minnie.

The three tracks recorded just for this album are all superb. Bonnie Raitt, playing acoustic guitar, does a great job on “Ain’t Nothin’ in Ramblin’,” proving – as if there were any doubt – she is still a remarkable purveyor of acoustic blues when she wants to be. Rory Block, one of today’s greatest acoustic blues artists, does a soulful solo arrangement of “When You Love Me” with some excellent slide playing, and Ruthie Foster offers a delightfully sassy take on “Keep Your Big Mouth Closed.”

Rounding out the album are two other previously released tracks. The late Phoebe Snow, with backing from David Bromberg, is featured on an elegant version of “In My Girlish Days” from her 1976 album, It Looks Like Snow (Phoebe never did enough of this kind of material), and the late Koko Taylor finishes the album with “Black Rat Swing,” from her 2007 release, Old School, the album’s only contemporary Chicago-style electric track.

Starting with the songs from her own albums and rounding the tribute out with five offerings from other artists, Maria Muldaur has assembled a worthy tribute to one of the most important figures in blues history.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif