CD REVIEW: Maria Muldaur finds her garden of joy

By Diana Nollen

If you fell in love with Maria Muldaur's sexy soprano on “Midnight at the Oasis” in the mid-'70s, get over it.

She's dug down to her Greenwich Village jug band roots with a throaty, gritty alto on her new CD, “Maria Muldaur & her Garden of Joy.”

This is music just crying for a front porch with a swinging screen door, rocking chair, hound dog and a cold, tall glass of something to quench your thirst. With a harmonica nearby for jamming.

The cuts on this latest disc features such luminaries as Taj Mahal, John Sebastian and David Grisman playing plucky lines on fiddle, guitar, banjo, mandolin, harmonica, washboard, jug and other assorted instruments conventional and traditional.

“The Ghost of the St. Louis Blues” will put you in a Halloween mood with its “creepy melody” noted in the lyrics and eerie whistles.

It's tons of fun with muted trumpet and clarinet embellishments.

She dresses up traditional tune “Sweet Lovin' Ol' Soul” with the occasional cry in her voice reminiscent of Patsy Cline.

She turns to a more mellow, bluesy feel on a duet medley that starts easy with “Life's Too Short,” then kicks up the beat with “When Elephants Roost in Bamboo Trees.”

And nothing gets bluer than the ruminations on “Bank Failure Blues,” prophetically followed by “The Panic is On.”

This is a side of Muldaur her pop fans may not have heard, but she's actually been busy jumping genres the past 30 years. No one-hit wonder, she's recorded rock, folk, country, jazz, gospel, swing, “bluesiana” and roots music, along with an album giving a nod to issues of social justice.

 “Garden of Joy” won't send your camels to bed. They'll be kicking up a little dust.

FAST TAKE

Title: “Maria Muldaur & her Garden of Joy”

Label: Stony Plain Music

Performance: 8 p.m. Wednesday, 0ct. 21

Where: CSPS, 1103 Third St. SE, Cedar Rapids

Tickets: $24 advance at www.iowatix.com or $30 at the door

Information: www.legionarts.org and www.mariamuldaur.com