Home Schedule Tickets Directions Pictures Links Archive Volunteer

WAMC Performing Arts Studio

Maria Muldaur - Live at WAMC Performing Arts Studio

News and Reviews

MULDAUR SHOWS RANGE AND HEAT
By Dave Singer

(First published in the Sunday Gazette of Schenectady, NY: Sunday, March 13, 2005)

Most know Maria Muldaur from her hit "Midnight at the Oasis," a song that remains a staple today on certain radio formats after three decades.

Saturday night at the Linda Norris Auditorium, Muldaur showed a full house that her career has stayed vibrant not from one signature hit, but from her exceptional depth and range. And her art of ageless seduction.

Accompanied by the Joshua Wolff Trio, the show favored her jazzy side, but didn’t stop her from singing throaty blues groans and falsetto shouts as in her opener, "I’m a Woman." She followed with a classic Mose Allison song, "[Your] Molecular Structure," stepping aside to let the trio shift the feel from lounge sound to West Coast cool jazz. Muldaur followed with a heated version of "Fever " that surely warmed a few men in the house, if not some women too.

Muldaur sings about love, almost exclusively: losing it, gaining it, missing it, running from it. She can undress a nursery rhyme with her sultry voice and sexual energy on stage. When not singing, she stayed front and center in her long black dress and lengthy black scarf with sparkles, swaying with her eyes closed, shaking the tambourine above her head and shouting "Oh yeah " to an occasional piano riff.

Muldaur sang several consecutive Peggy Lee songs from her 2003 tribute album "A Woman Along with the Blues," including the title song. Others included "I Don’t Know Enough About You" and "You’re My Thrill." Lee’s "Everything’s Moving Too Fast" raised the excitement level of the show with its speed and boogiewoogie feel.

"Do it again, she cried," Muldaur shouted to Wolff during his piano solo.

She also focused on her latest release last year,"Love Wants to Dance," nailing the title track. Muldaur came originally from the early folk scene of Greenwich Village. Since then, she’s done approximately 30 recordings in areas such as Appalachian mountain music, rock, blues, ragtime and jug bands.

"If the shoes don’t fit, don’t keep them on. . . . If you don’t want to stay, get gone," she advised women in a song about Bessie Smith appearing in a dream with love advice. Muldaur had advice for men as well, telling them to "listen up, this is what women want," before singing "Some Cats."

The show was recorded for a future broadcast on WAMC radio.

Back to News and Reviews

Used with permission of the Schenectady Daily Gazette. Re-use rights may not be assigned to a third party without prior written permission from the Daily Gazette.