Maria Muldaur - Sweet Harmony (1976)

The title track reveals just about everything a listener will need to know about Maria Muldaur's third time around on the big-label recording scene. The first few moments of instrumental interplay between guitarists Amos Garrett and David Wilcox and electric bassist Bill Dickinson will make old-timers nod in the delight of recalling an era when musicians actually jammed on pop records, and bass players were not just listening to click tracks. Once the song itself starts, it won't take long before the urge to take the album off will also begin, but it is a smarter move to simply move ahead. "Sweet Harmony" the song is overdone, and dated in its sanctimonious hippie white-gospel feel, but "Sweet Harmony" the album clicks at times with some of the finest productions ever created around a Maria Muldaur vocal. "Sad Eyes" would have been a better choice for an opener. The unbeatable rhythm team of bassist Willie Weeks and guitarist Waddy Wachtel -- who, a decade later, would get the nod to back Keith Richards up on solo projects -- really set up a delicious shuffle here, and once the superbly recorded band sound is established, it turns out to be a perfect spotlight for Muldaur's vocal talents.

A sort of encyclopedia of country, old-time, boogie, and Memphis jug band influences rolls out in her vocal like a barbecue chef in Kansas City spreading out the evening's offerings. For a musician of her intelligence and savvy, aspects of this session must have surely felt like arrival at some kind of professional nirvana. To be singing a Hoagy Carmichael tune -- "Rockin' Chair," an astute choice that the songstress pulls off with great comic flair -- with orchestral backup arranged and conducted by the great alto saxophonist Benny Carter, for example. Does it get any better than that? Not really, and the Carter tracks are some of the best in Muldaur's entire discography, especially "We Just Couldn't Say Goodbye." The way Muldaur goes for a high note on the word "go" -- and gets it, practically yodelling -- is one of her most enjoyable vocal tricks. There are many influences involved in this project, however -- not just master musicians such as Carter, baritone saxophonist Sahib Shihab, and guitarist Kenny Burrell.

Maria Muldauer - Sweet Harmony (1976)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Tracklist:

"Sweet Harmony" (Smokey Robinson) – 4:45
"Sad Eyes" (Neil Sedaka, Phil Cody) – 4:30
"Lying Song" (Kate McGarrigle) – 4:07
"Rockin' Chair" (Hoagy Carmichael) – 3:42
"I Can't Stand It" (Smokey McAllister) – 3:37
"We Just Couldn't Say Goodbye" (Harry Woods) – 3:35
"Back by Fall" (Wendy Waldman) – 3:55
"Jon the Generator" (John Herald) – 3:20
"Wild Bird" (Wendy Waldman) – 4:45
"As an Eagle Stirreth in Her Nest" (William Herbert Brewster) – 4:11