Maria Muldaur - Richland Woman Blues

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Music reviews of Richland Woman Blues

Music Review: This is one fine acoustic blues album!
Rating: 5 Stars

As Maria writes in her extensive and interesting liner notes, this was "a labor of love." That's obvious from start to finish the way she carefully selected tunes and visiting artists to pay tribute to the blues of the 20s and 30s. Like Maria, I got to see a few of the songwriters represented here in their old age. The blind street preacher, Reverend Gary Davis, inspired many of us budding guitar players to take a good look at our finger-picking technique. He continues to inspire me in the way he combined the gospel with this rootsy music.

My favorite tunes here are those from the gospel blues tradition. Here Maria "had church" with Bonnie Raitt and her slide guitar in her living room on Mississippi Fred McDowell's "It's a Blessing." On Blind Willie Johnson's "Soul of a Man," Marie is joined by a growly voiced Taj Mahal and Roy Rogers on slide guitar. This rendition is quite a bit grittier than Bruce Cockburn's version on "Nothing But a Burning Light," but either way it's a powerful tune about the condition of every person's soul. Ernie Hawkins joins Maria with his fine finger-picking on Gary Davis' "I Belong to that Band." Hallelujah!

This is one fine acoustic blues album. It reminds me of many nights in the 60s sitting around someone's kitchen table playing the blues until our fingers were raw. Here the same atmosphere is present, but the quality of the singing and playing has gotten better with age.

Thanks, Maria, for bringing to a new generation (and to us aging folkies) this "timeless and most eloquent expression of the human condition and the human spirit."

Description of Richland Woman Blues

Blues CDs

• Music > Styles
• Folk
• Pop