Concert #681 - Maria Muldaur at McCabe's Guitar Shop (June 28, 2013)

This was my first time to see Maria Muldaur in concert. She is one of those artists whom I have been aware of seemingly for a lifetime, but have never taken the time to explore in more detail. With one exception, though: I have given many listens to "Heart Of Mine", her album of Dylan covers, an outstanding collection of  well-sung and well-produced songs released in 2006. Highly recommended.

Maria's Friday night appearance at McCabe's took place just three months shy of her 70th birthday. I'm bringing up her age in order to emphasize a point: I was impressed by how nuanced her voice still is and how well she controlled it, even while delivering songs that were not all that easy to sing. A case in point was Percy Mayfield's "Please Send Me Someone To Love", a song whose coda turned into a veritable vocal tour-de-force for a singer of any age and easily one of the highlights of the evening.

The show kicked off with a Taj Mahal cover performed by Maria's able trio, the Red Hot Bluesiana Band.

Band line-up

Gary Vogenson - Guitar, vocals

Chris Burns - Keyboards

Dave Tucker - Drums, vocals

Friday night's set list was heavy on blues numbers, including a few with blatant sexual innuendos. Needless to say, the crowd received these risqué songs with laughter. Maria was pretty good at mentioning the authors or the original performers of the songs she chose to sing for us, among them Memphis Minnie, Elvin Bishop, Mahalia Jackson, JJ Cale, Percy Mayfield, the Mississippi Sheiks, Eric Bibb and Rory Block.

PARTIAL SET LIST

I've Done Made It Up In My Mind

I'm A Woman
I'll Be Glad
Bessie's Advice

Don't You Feel My Leg

Me And My Chauffeur Blues

In My Girlish Days 

Please Send Me Someone To Love

Cajun Moon

New Orleans

He Calls That Religion

It Ain't The Meat, It's The Motion

I'm Goin' Back Home

Midnight At The Oasis

The set list

The concert sold out a couple of weeks in advance, so a late show was added. Still, Maria treated the attendees of the early show to a generous eighty-five minute set. There was no encore, as immediately after her last song, Maria rushed to the front room to sell CDs, meet the fans and sign autographs, while more folks were lining up in the street to catch the late show. Definitely a busy evening for Maria Muldaur.

Maria Muldaur meeting fans at McCabe's

Maria Muldaur meeting fans at McCabe's

The merch table

Occasional concert announcer Mikki Itzigsohn

The stage