Geoff Muldaur

Geoff Muldaur (born August 13, 1943 ) is an American folk singer and guitarist. He was a founding member of the Jim Kweskin Jug Band from Cambridge, Massachusetts , and a member of Paul Butterfield's band Better Days . He is one of the great voices in the folk and blues scene on the American east coast.

biography

Geoff Muldaur in cult in Niederstetten (2006)

Muldaur grew up in Pelham , New York and went to New York as a teenager to go to jazz clubs and DJ Alan Freed's shows . He listens to Leadbelly there and falls for the folk and country blues. While studying at Boston University , he discovered the local folk scene. He then lived in New Orleans for a year and hitchhiked through the USA. In 1963 his first record was released on the Prestige label . Soon after, he became a member of the Jim Kweskin Jug Band , which would revolutionize the rather rigid approach to the folk scene of the time. After the Kweskin Band broke up, he released two successful albums as a duo with his then wife Maria Muldaur . Several solo albums and two albums with Amos Garrett follow . He works with such famous musicians as Bonnie Raitt , Eric Von Schmidt , Jerry García , Bob Dylan , John Cale , David Lindley , Van Dyke Parks and Garth Hudson . Although he is highly admired by his music colleagues, he does not succeed in making a big breakthrough with the audience.

There are only three white blues singers. Geoff Muldaur represents at least two of them. ( Richard Thompson )

In 1981 he disappears from the music scene. He earns his living as managing director of the Hannibal label and as a software programmer for the production of car accessories. During this time he wrote music for documentaries and commercials . He can rarely be heard live - for example with the resurgence of the legendary Newport Folk Festival in 1985. Friends and inner compulsion brought him back to the studio in 1998. With the release of The Secret Handshake and the mixture of blues, ragtime , folk and a touch of bebop , the circle closes back to his musical beginnings in the 1960s. The critics celebrate it, the audience wants to hear it again and further publications (for example a CD with titles by the cornetist Bix Beiderbecke ) should follow. Since then he's been on tour again - full of old songs and stories.

His daughter Clare Muldaur has now followed in his footsteps and followed him as a songwriter.

His sister is the actress Diana Muldaur .

Discography

Solo albums

• Sleepy Man Blues - Prestige
• Having a Wonderful Time - Warner Bros / Reprise
• Motion - Warner Bros / recap
• Blues Boy - Flying Fish
• I Ain't Drunk - Hannibal
• The Secret Handshake - HighTone
• Password - HighTone
• Beautiful Isle of Somewhere - tradition & modernity
• Private Astronomy - A Vision of the Music of Bix Beiderbecke - Deutsche Grammophon

With Maria Muldaur

• Pottery Pie - Warner Bros / Reprise
• Sweet Potatoes - Warner Bros / Reprise

With Amos Garrett

• Geoff Muldaur & Amos Garrett - Flying Fish
• Live in Japan - Yupiteru (Japan)

Jim Kweskin Jug Band

• Jim Kweskin & the Jug Band - Vanguard
• Jug Band Music - Vanguard
• See Reverse Side For Title - Vanguard
• Garden of Joy - Warner Bros.
• Jug Band Blues (with Sippie Wallace ) - Mountain Railroad
• Greatest Hits - Vanguard

Paul Butterfield's Better Days

• Better Days - Warner Bros./Bearsville
• It All Comes Back - Warner Bros./Bearsville

Various

• The Blues Project - Elektra
• The Bluesville Years - Prestige
• Newport Folk Festival 1964 Evening Concerts Vol. 1 - Vanguard
• Newport Folk Festival 1965 - Vanguard
• Festival 1967 - Vanguard
• The Record Show - Warner Bros.
• Goodbye - Suspex
• Avalon Blues - Vanguard
• Geoff Muldaur and the Texas Sheiks 2009 - Tradition & Modern

Web links

• Geoff Muldaur's homepage
• Muldaur at Discogs (English)