Jan 25, 2008

Red-hot blues burn bright

Classic diva numbers get Muldaur's 'Naughty' treatment

By Paul Freeman / Entertainment Writer

The dynamic vocals of Mill Valley resident Maria Muldaur will ring out at Redwood City's Little Fox Theatre tonight. Belting the blues in red-hot style, Muldaur breathes new life into the songs of such legends as Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Alberta Hunter and Ethel Waters.

Onstage, she'll create even more excitement than on her fabulous current album, the seductive and saucy "Naughty, Bawdy and Blue." The tantalizing tunes include "Empty Bed Blues" and "A Good Man Is Hard to Find." It's the third in a trilogy of Muldaur albums paying tribute to the great blues singers from the 1920s through 1940s, which earned Grammy nominations and W.C. Handy awards.

Muldaur performs with her sizzling band, the Syncopatin' Papas. "We want to present (our) music in the right manner, as befits the style of these classic blues tunes," Muldaur said.

While her earlier blues albums featured country blues - the simple, yet grabbing sounds of the Delta - the new collection focuses on a more sophisticated form. The music of those classic songstresses was "right on the crossroads of where blues and jazz intersected," Muldaur said. "(Those) women were backed up by the likes of Louis Armstrong and his band, a lot of the greatest jazz instrumentalists of the day."

Even in the Depression, those artists sold millions of records. "They were the precursors to our pop stars," Muldaur said. "They were rightfully called queens. The word 'diva' now is so overused. But these queens came out in very classy, fancy attire - feathered headdresses and beaded gowns and costume changes. And they really were beloved by their audience, which transcended backgrounds."

Muldaur also appreciates the fact that these women liberated themselves long before women's liberation rose to the fore. "They transcended all the barriers and overcame them - racial barriers and financial challenges and hardships and the social constraints of the day," Muldaur said, and added with a chuckle, "They led these very lusty kind of lives."

They had very modern attitudes in how they presented themselves, Muldaur believes. "They lived on their own terms. They didn't take any monkey business from anybody," she said. "As far as being sexually liberated, by the sound of these songs, they were all of that. They sang about it with great gusto and humor. A lot of tongue-in-cheek, double-entendre. I love the whole naughty, bawdy part of the blues that they represent."

Today's audiences respond enthusiastically to such numbers as "Handy Man" and "One Hour Mama."

"Even though some of these songs were written almost a hundred years ago, I look in the audience and see husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends nudging each other, winking, cracking up. The songs address universal observations of the human condition. What was true then is still true now," Muldaur said.

"These aren't museum pieces I'm trotting out. It's fun stuff. (These women) came out of bawdyhouses, dance halls and later juke joints. The blues can be very joyous, displaying a great zest for life. It's time to pay tribute to them, shine a little light on them, so they don't end up lost on some dusty shelf in the Smithsonian."

Muldaur has always known how vibrant Americana music can be. Growing up in Greenwich Village, N.Y., and becoming an accomplished fiddler, she absorbed folk, jazz, rock, gospel and bluegrass influences, as well as blues.

"This music is just as valid as Mozart ... or one of those longhair guys," Muldaur quipped. "It's unique and inventive. Orchestras all over the world endeavor to play classical music very precisely, just as written. It's just as valid and important for us to continue to know how to play these classic blues songs. These artists expressed themselves with great depth of spirit."

Muldaur garnered attention with Jim Kweskin's jug band before achieving huge solo success with "Midnight at the Oasis" and "I'm A Woman." She's still touring all over the world, and her voice has never sounded better.

"It took me decades of singing experience and life experience to develop the vocal chops and the inner knowledge to sing these blues songs the way I do now. These songs have lived in me - and I've lived in them - for 45 years. You hear the little ingenue voice of 'Midnight at the Oasis' and you wouldn't even think it's the same person," she said, with a laugh. "I'm more relaxed. I feel like I've got a certain mastery over what I do now, but I never stop trying to improve."

Muldaur isn't worried about the future of the blues. "It's not going to go anywhere, no matter what the pop trends are, no matter what the media tells you is the hot, hip thing of the moment," she said. "The whole roots music scene has proliferated unbelievably since the '50s, when I first tuned into it. In the mid-'90s, it got another big boost from the 'O Brother Where Art Thou' soundtrack. That exposed it to a new audience.

"There are so many young bluegrass bands, blues bands now, so many festivals. This music is by the people, for the people and of the people," Muldaur said. "So it's alive and well. You may not get as rich and famous doing it as if you were doing the latest up-to-the-minute hip-hop record, but I don't care. I've had enough hit records. This is the music I love to do."