Maria Muldaur - Sweet Lovin' Ol' Soul

Maria Muldaur is, of course, best known for her sexy, soft-rock hit, "Midnight at the Oasis", but she has had a long career of quality music before and since then, starting in the early 60's and releasing literally dozens of records over the years. In this 2002 album, she channels the queen of the bawdy blues, Memphis Minnie, and covers a number of her tunes with the help of legends like Pinetop Perkins and Taj Mahal, among others. The result is an extremely well done homage that has a mix of old and new sounds and is as sensual as it is swingin'.

This record is primarily acoustic, in fitting with the material, and starts off with a Memphis Minnie number, "I Am Sailin'". Backed by a couple of guitars and mandolin (by Del Rey and Steve James), Maria croons'n'growls her way through this number with appropriate salacious swagger. Roli Salley joins in on bass for the bouncy,  mandolin-led "Long As I Can See You Smile" and fiddle'n'jug are added to the mix on the title cut, which also featured Taj Mahal on guitar, banjo and vocals. Taj duets with Maria on the suggestive "Ain't What You Used to Have", which is driven by barrel-house-styled piano, and then there is another guitar/mandolin Minnie blues, "Lookin' the World Over" before some emotive horns are added to "Empty Bed Blues", which is filled with almost single-entendres.

Lucille Bogan's "Tricks Ain't Walkin'" is a fairly self-explanatory acoustic blues followed by Minnie's great, impassioned "Crazy Cryin' Blues" and her "She Put Me Outdoors", which features the vocals and upbeat 12-string guitar work of Alvin Youngblood Hart. Pinetop Perkins, a real legend who was apparently in his 90's when this was recorded, comes in on bluesy piano for "Decent Woman Blues" and then Maria duets with Tracy Nelson for the call'n'response, unrequited advice of "I'm Goin' Back" before they call it quits with Tal returning for the gospel number, "Take a Stand".

The sound of this record and the musicianship is truly impressive - you really get the feeling and instrumental sounds of the old-time recordings but with better audio quality. Muldaur has practically made a career of being the sexy-songstress and this material fits her well. A really fun album that makes me want to pick up some more of her releases.