Naughty Bawdy & Blue

Maria Muldaur | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 15, 2007)
• Original Release Date: 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Stony Plain Music
• ASIN: B000O591I8
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #97,551 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Down Home Blues

2. Up The Country Blues

3. Separation Blues

4. A Good Man Is Hard To Find

5. Handy Man

6. New Orleans Hop Scop Blues

7. Smile

8. TB Blues

9. One Hour Mama

10. Empty Bed Blues

11. Early Every Morn

12. Yonder Come The Blues

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Building on her Grammy-nominated collections of classic women's blues from the '20s through the '40s (Richland Woman Blues, 2001, and Sweet Lovin' Ol' Soul, 2005), jazz/blues chanteuse Maria Muldaur returns with Naughty, Bawdy & Blue. It's an apt title for a sassy group of songs originally recorded by Victoria Spivey (one of Muldaur's mentors), Alberta Hunter, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, and other female urban blues stylists the singer describes as "liberated socially, financially, and most of all sexually from the confines and mores of the times." Backed by the perfect fit of James Dapogny's Chicago Jazz Band, who often performed with Sippie Wallace and whose sound seems to have time-traveled without alteration, Muldaur moves through a dozen vaudeville blues numbers with integrity and authenticity, and never resorts to campy riffs or faux black dialect. Her expressive soprano has taken on a depth and heft through the years, and she's smart to deliver such suggestive lines as "I love the way he whips my cream" (from "Handy Man") or "He's a deep-sea diver with a stroke that can't go wrong" (from Smith's "Empty Bed Blues") with a subtle wink, preferring to let an insinuating trumpet chase home the joke. The album finds its highlight with "Separation Blues," a duet with Bonnie Raitt, who introduced Wallace to new audiences on her tours of the '70s and '80s. Muldaur and Raitt--corduroy and burlap--harmonize with the ease that comes from decades of friendship, and from the joy of preserving and appreciating one of America’s purest musical forms. --Alanna Nash

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Urban Blues w/ Maria in top form, June 4, 2007

By 

Jonathan Schaefer (los angeles, ca) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Naughty Bawdy & Blue (Audio CD)

Thankfully there is someone carrying the torch to the Next Generation of music lovers. I can say, "Gee, I remember when I heard Alberta Hunter sing 'Handy Man' live in New York City." and count my blessings. Now there is someone who will keep these songs alive for others to discover.

The Chicago Jazz Band is one of the best bands I've heard in ages and they work hand in hand with Maria Muldaur. It's a shame this is just a single cd - they have enough material for a double, I'm sure.

I know there is that DRIVE to hit the ultimate cut of a song, but I think a second version of Empty Bed Blues wasn't quite necessary. I keep thinking there were two or three other songs that could have been used. Coming in at just a shade over 45 min. seems like a big tease.

Coming down to it - she's the best blues singer, she gathers the best musicians and arrangers around her. She just oozes sex appeal and she knows just what she's singing about.

Hopefully she's got a Naughty, Bawdy & Blues Pt. 2 up her sleeves.

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Paying Her Dues, Again, May 17, 2007

By 

Alfred Johnson (boston, ma) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Naughty Bawdy & Blue (Audio CD)

If you ever wondered who, if anyone, was going to carry on the tradition of great female blues singers now that the likes of Bessie Smith, Mamie Smith, Sippy Wallace and Memphis Minnie have long been gone from the scene look no further. As I pointed out in a review of her last album, "Sweet Lovin' Ol' Soul",. Maria Muldaur has paid her dues and here she is doing it all over again. This is the third album in series that she started in 2002 to cover the old great blues singers. In the present album she covers the above-mentioned singers and others in a style in which they would surely recognize as their own. These are the classic female blues singers of the 1920's and 30's. Maria is in fast company but she does not miss a beat.

Pay particular attention to her rendition of Victoria Spivey's "Handy Man" (Spivey"s "TB Blues" is nicely done, as well). Check out what the divine Ms. Spivey had to say about Maria on the liner notes. And do check out the covers of Sippy Wallace songs, "Up Country Blues" and "Separation Blues". Damn if Maria does not sound like that unfortunately not well known singer (Maria also covered a Wallace classic "Don't Advertise Your Man" on her last album). Update: I just found out recently (2009) that Sippy Wallace appeared with the Jim Kweskin Jug Band (Maria's old group) in the 1960's. Now it all makes sense, right?

I would also add that I had the pleasure of hearing some of the cuts on this album live in concert by Maria in Cambridge (one of her old stomping grounds in her youthful days with the Kweskin Jug Band back in the sixties) and she can still belt them out. If there is any truth in the assumption that former President Clinton was our first `black' president no one can deny that Maria is our first `black' classic blues singer. And has the stage presence, to boot. The tradition lives. Listen on.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Tribute with Awesome Backup, May 31, 2007

By 

John McNeill (Fairfax Station, VA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Naughty Bawdy & Blue (Audio CD)

This album is great. I discovered her music back in college in the 90s, and she really is one of the best blues singers around. . .and amazingly productive putting out an album a year since Louisiana Love Call came out in 1992. She has done all types of genres of jazz and blues.

Naughty Bawdy & Blue is one of the best. The songs are mostly uptempo with a great backup of trumpets, trombones, clarinets, saloon style piano, etc. It is urban upscale blues of the 1920s and 1930s, a tribute to the great female singers of the era.

The songwriting is terrific. You don't get this kind of smart, bawdy, and often moving type of songwriting today. The Chicago Jazz Band brings an infectious mood to the songs.

In short: This is a really fun album of great songs, singing, and musicianship. I guarantee you will like it. It is one gem after another to the point you are disappointed when the album ends. My favorites: Down Home Blues, Up the Country Blues, Separation Blues (great duet with Bonnie Raitt), New Orleans Hop Scot Blues, TB Blues, One Hour Mama (very funny), and Yonder Come the Blues.

I cannot imagine anyone not liking this album. It makes me want to seek out the original singers and songwriters of these songs, which is exactly what a tribute album should do.