Maria Muldaur

Putting Maria Muldaur on stage with Festival House Band leader Amos Garrett makes sense. In fact, it makes a lot of sense if you saw them play together when she was touring to support Midnight At the Oasis in 1974. This album made Muldaur a household name in the '70s as she reintroduced (or reinvented) the oeuvre of "torch singer." Whether she was belting out a blues song, or teasing and caressing a jazzy ballad, she did it with Garrett playing lead guitar-both on the disk and on tour. Anyone who saw them on stage in that '74 tour recognized the chemistry between the two artists. Her vocals and interpretations ranged far and wide, while he provided deft accompaniment, punctuated with scintillating solos. Muldaur still crosses a number of musical borders with ease, and her albums range from a southern blend of music she calls bluesiana, through an acoustic jazz and blues collection.

  -- SA