Maria Muldaur – 30 Years of Maria Muldaur: I’m a Woman

Maria D’Amato’s childhood in Greenwich Village—ground zero for the 1950s folk boom—steeped her in American roots idioms, setting her on a career course that’s now at 41 years and counting. Taking the surname of fellow folkie Geoff Muldaur, to whom she was briefly married, Maria enjoyed a period of popularity in the ’70s as the token interpretive singer/sex symbol among Warner Bros.’ stable of thoroughbred writer/artists. During that time she recorded a series of solo albums that spawned the come-hither hits “Midnight at the Oasis” and “I’m a Woman,” and these nostalgia pieces set up the first half of this 19-track retrospective. But it’s the second half that delivers the revelations—Muldaur’s most productive period began in 1992, when she was 49 years old. The primary flavor of this later music is gumbo, as the veteran song stylist conducts an extended aural love affair with Louisiana via sultry pieces like J.J. Cale’s “Cajun Moon” and John Hiatt’s “Feels Like Rain.” Peak moment: 1999’s “Gee Baby, Ain’t I Good to You,” a smoky after-hours duet with blues singer/pianist Charles Brown recorded just months before his death. These worldly performances carry echoes of that ingénue she once was, bringing poignancy to Muldaur’s perennial tastiness.