Long ago and far away (Toronto, the late 1970s) I went to what I remember as a dazzling and high energy concert of Maria Muldaur, a Latina with a lot of hair. I remember her covering at least one Smokey Robinson song (I don't think it was "Sweet Harmony," one of my most favorite Smokey songs) and an eclectic mix that included here one real hit "Midnight at the Oasis" and the Lieber/Stoller "I'm a Woman."

I don't know why I was thinking about her, but I was wondering "Whatever happened to Maria Muldaur?" It seems that she is going strong, churning out albums for a major label (Telarc), including a 2006 one of Bob Dylan love songs.

The post-protest, countrified Bob Dylan of the 1970s (when Muldaur had songs on the charts) wrote and performed some fairly mellow romantic songs, of which "Lay Lady Lay" is the best known. I won't quibble about whether it is about sex or love, but Dylan's' recording has a pleading quality that Muldaur's doesn't. (The gender of the singer doesn't much matter, since the song is in the third person, even if when Dylan sings it, it seems that he is singing about himself in the third person -- and eventually it gets to "I long..." But why does Muldaur change "man" to "guy"???)

Muldaur is more honky-tonk than Dylan in "Lay," even more country (and slower in tempo) than Dylan in "I'll Be Your Baby" and has Appalachian fiddling in "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" (which swings more and faster than Dylan's original recording).

I like the live Dylan performance of "Heart of Mine" (on "Biograph") rather than the studio recording (on "Shot of Love"), but even without making a list, I'm sure it' would not be on my list of my favorite one hundred Bob Dylan songs, and the early 1980s is probably my least favorite period of Dylan songs/recordings. Making it the title track seems perverse to me (not in a good way!).

Not only because it is the one track of the album that I like best, I'd have chosen "Make You Feel My Love" (originally on "Time Out of Mind", overshadowed by "It Ain't Dark Yet (But It's Getting There"). Muldaur sounds plenty country, but with an admixture of torch singer -- and shall we saw a smoother voice than Dylan's rasp.

For covers of Dylan songs by a female vocalist who sounds like a singer (more than Dylan, though he has been performing for many decades!), I much prefer Joan Baez's "Any Day Now" (which also gets very country in some cuts, but covers more major Dylan songs than Muldaur does, including an a capella "Tears of Rage" and a hypnotizing "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" that runs twice as long as Dylan's original recording).

Those who like country music more than I do, likely would like "Heart of Mine" more than I do. It contains some Dylan songs that I don't recognize along with some I know well. Of the four in the second set, I prefer Dylan's for all, though I also like Muldaur's "Make You Feel My Love" and sort of like her cover of "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere." I like the down'n'dirty approach to "To Be Alone With You" (one of the lesser tracks of "Nashville Skyline"), but like "Heart of Mine," I can't muster any enthusiasm for the song. The bluesy tinge to "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go" (one of the lesser songs from the great "Blood on the Tracks") is mildly interesting (except that it makes me not believe what the lyrics are saying, and to me it's another third-rate Dylan song). Muldaur delivers "Wedding Song" (from "Planet Waves") as a torch song, but again doesn't convince me she feels what the lyrics are saying (and though I prefer her cover to Dylan's original, I don't like either one).

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© 2008, Stephen O. Murray

Buckets Of Rain 4:13
Lay Baby Lay (Lay Lady Lay) 3:39
To Be Alone With You 4:15
Heart Of Mine 3:13
Make You Feel My Love 3:30
Moonlight 4:16
You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go 4:53
Golden Loom 5:22
On A Night Like This 3:31
I'll Be Your Baby Tonight 4:08
Wedding Song 4:37
You Ain't Goin' Nowhere 3:42

TOTAL 49.2 minutes


I looked for the answer to my idle wondering "Whatever happened to Maria Muldaur?" at the San Francisco Public Library, from which I checked out "Heart of Mine." This is an entry to laurashrti's National Library Week writeoff (the week is in mid-April but epinionators' aim is not very exact!).




Recommended: No