Biography
Famed for her 1973 hit "Midnight at the Oasis," vocalist Maria Muldaur emerged during the Greenwich Village movement to become one of America's finest folk-blues singers. Born in Greenwich Village, NY in 1943, Maria Muldaur first began performing in girl band The Cashmeres while in high school and soon became a fixture on her hometown's burgeoning folk revival scene. After a brief stint with revivalists Even Dozen Jug Band, Muldaur relocated to Cambridge, MA and joined her future husband Geoff Muldaur in the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, recording several albums under her borth name of Maria D'Amato. Following the group's split, the Muldaurs moved to Woodstock and released two LPs, Pottery Pie and Sweet Potatoes, before severing both their personal and professional ties. Encouraged by her friends to pursue a solo career, Muldaur recorded her self-titled debut LP in 1973 and reached No. 6 on the US Hot 100 with its lead single, "Midnight at the Oasis." Taken from 1974 sophomore Waitress in a Donut Shop, her cover of Even Dozen Jug Band's "I'm a Woman" also became a hit and was followed by a string of further albums for the Reprise label including Sweet Harmony and Southern Winds. Muldaur also became an in-demand backing vocalist, appearing on records by Jerry Garcia and Paul Butterfield and joining the touring line-up of Grateful Dead. Muldaur then embraced her born-again Christianity with 1980 live album Gospel Nights and 1982's CCM LP There is a Love. However, she soon returned to secular music, venturing into jazz blues on 1983's Sweet and Slow and 1986's Transblucency, children's country music on 1990's On the Sunny Side and Crescent City soul on 1992's Louisiana Love Call, as well as musical theatre with roles in "The Pirates of Penzance" and "Pump Boys and Dinettes." Muldaur continued her prolific and eclectic streak with the critically-acclaimed Meet Me at Midnite, star-studded Fanning the Flames and Grammy-nominated Richland Women Blues, the latter the first in a trilogy of LPs paying respect to the female blues vocalists of the pre-war era. Muldaur went on to record tribute albums to Shirley Temple, Peggy Lee and Bob Dylan, collaborate with the Women's Voices for Peace Choir on the anti-war Yes We Can! and return to her Jug Band roots on kids collection Barnyard Dance. Following 2010 festive effort Christmas at the Oasis, Muldaur recorded a love letter to the sounds of New Orleans on 2011's Steady Love, tackled the works of legendary blues guitarist Memphis Minnie and picked up the fifth Grammy nod of her enduring career for her 2018 tribute to inspiration Blue Lu Barker, Don't You Feel My Leg.
