Why a post about her, of all people?
Short answer … why not? Longer answer brings in so many other elements. Right, first a look and listen to the lady and her one and only real hit, back in 1974, when the Eagles were coming out, Marshall Tucker, Steely Dan … that sort of eclectic folk, pop time … white blues too.
Years and ages, origin, plus her voice, come into it next.
Born in New York, Hispanic, in 1942, she soon moved around the States seeing and singing whomever and whatever she could. She looked hippy girl in some ways, forceful, obviously wishing to be “the star”, the one they’d come to see.
My feeling is her voice and that song … well naturally, kind people wrote up how “versatile” she was, trying everything going, loving all Americana. One nasty person on Reddit wrote “like nails on a chalkboard” … well, that’s up to you to decide.
Bottom line is she didn’t “grab” legions of fans … she could certainly “work” an audience … she was certainly in that milieu, no question. However, the negative reaction was from those called:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Jones
These people were tailend boomers, 1955 (no earlier) to (at the very latest) 1965. So take the median 1960 and you have the idea. Not really having war connections, it’s set out quite well in the Wiki article.
As for Maria herself … war baby for sure, Monterey 1967, Woodstock 1969, married 1964 to 72 to a band mate, one daughter. Why not past 1972? Well who precisely knows but she had not yet found her fame as she saw it, so she kept moving on, kept pushing … herself, by herself … New York, remember. She spoke of going down south and bringing that music, that soul, back up north.
”Tried” being a born again Christian but then decided she was not religious, just spiritual. Uh huh. “Finding herself” forever.
And so to Tuba Skinny. A band under a fierce dictator but the sound was good … their sound will be this coming Sunday. Shaye Cohn, the dictator, had a good thing going, wanted it that way, along came Maria, just luvvin their deep south Nu-Orlins vibe … hey, wanna collaborate on a album? Maria was 79 in 2021 … mid-Covid … her idea of “collaborate” was, on account of being the Name star, that they would be her backing band. Shaye Cohn was having none of that “backing” business.
It was not a great experience … for anyone. We can’t pull any Deep South vs NYC thing or even LA, as Tuba Skinny themselves were imports.
So now she’s around 83, Maria Muldaur … huge success? World star? Well, to be charitable … name fairly well known to many … mention the hit and folk will say oh yeah, I remember.
Why am I, lil ole me, not effusive about her? I don’t know. Just something I can’t pin down. Are you effusive about her? Afa I know, she never did any truly bad things … she just “never quite” … whilst carrying herself as if she were an honoured lady of … what?
Soul? Pop? Latin? Blues? She was as eclectic as this blog. No one wants to be cruel to her, her name is certainly respected, for sure … people ask is she related to Diana Muldaur? END.