Maria Muldaur is an American folk and blues singer who was part of the American folk music revival in the early 1960s. Muldaur was born in Greenwich Village, New York City, where she attended Hunter College High School. Muldaur cites as early musical influences classic country music, early rhythm and blues and doo-wop.
Muldaur began her career in the early 1960s as Maria D’Amato, performing with John Sebastian, David Grisman, and Stefan Grossman as a member of the Even Dozen Jug Band. She then joined Jim Kweskin & the JUg Band as a featured vocalist and occasional fiddle player.[5] During this time, she was part of the Greenwich Village scene that included Bob Dylan, and some of her recollections of the period, particularly with respect to Dylan, appear in Martin Scorsese’s 2005 documentary film No Direction Home. She married fellow Jug Band member Geoff Muldaur, and after the Kweskin group broke up, the couple produced two albums. She began her solo career when their marriage ended in 1972 but retained her married name.
Her first solo album, Maria Muldaur, released in 1973, contained her hit single “Midnight at the Oasis”, which reached No. 6 on the Billboard in 1974. It also peaked at number 21 in the UK. Later that year, she released her second album, Waitress in a Donut Shop. This included a re-recording of “I’m a Woman” the Leiber and Stoller number first associated with Peggy Lee and a standout feature from her Jug Band days. Her version of the song peaked at No.12 on the Billboard, and was her last Hot 100 hit in the U.S. to date. The title of this album is taken from a line in another song on the album, “Sweetheart”, by Ken Burgan.
Around this time, Muldaur established a relationship with the Grateful Dead. Opening for some Grateful Dead shows in the summer of 1974, with John Kahn, bassist of the Jerry Garcia Band, eventually earned her a seat in that group as a backing vocalist in the late 1970s. Around the same time Muldaur met and eventually collaborated with bluegrass icon Peter Rowan. She appeared on Super Jam (1989), the live recording of the German TV series Villa Fantastica, with Brian Augerr on piano, Pete York on drums, Dick Morrissey on tenor saxophone, Roy Williams on trombone, Harvey Weston on bass and Zoot Money, also on vocals.
Around 1980, Muldaur became a Christian and released a live album, Gospel Nights, and a studio album, There Is A Love. In 1983 she returned to secular music with Sweet and Slow, a set informed by vintage jazz and blues. Muldaur continued to perform, tour, and record after her success in the mid 1970s, including a turn at the Teatro ZinZanni in 2001. Her 2005 release Sweet Lovin’ Ol’ Soul was nominated for both a Blues Music Award (formerly the W.C. Handy Award) and a Grammy Award in the Traditional Blues Category. In 2013, she was nominated for a Blues Music Award in the Koko Taylor Award (Traditional Blues Female) category. In 2021, Muldaur recorded and released the album Let’s Get Happy Together, a 40-minute, 12-track album in collaboration with Tuba Skinny.
