Week of January 23, 2017
Part 1 28:29
Merl Saunders, Keepers (Fantasy)
GEE, BABY, AIN’T I GOOD TO YOU?
Interview: Geoff Muldaur
Merl Saunders and Jerry Garcia 1/18/74 Keystone Berkeley
CC RIDER w/ Geoff Muldaur, vocals
Interview: Geoff Muldaur
Merl Saunders and Jerry Garcia 1/18/74 Keystone Berkeley
TENNESSEE BLUES w/ Geoff Muldaur, vocals
Interview: Geoff Muldaur
Geoff Muldaur Is Having a Wonderful Time (Reprise)
WONDERING WHY
Part 2 27:34
Jim Kweskin Jug Band, Garden of Joy (Reprise)
MINGLEWOOD
Interview: Geoff Muldaur
Texas Sheiks (Tradition & Moderne)
POOR BOY
Interview: Geoff Muldaur
Geoff Muldaur, The Amsterdam Project (unreleased)
MICHIGAN WATER BLUES
Geoff Muldaur was a founding member of the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, which was a huge influence on the young musicians who became first Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions, then the Warlocks, and then the Grateful Dead.
The Mother McCree’s kids learned a number of songs from the Kweskin band. Bob Weir’s earliest arrangement of “Minglewood” is pretty much a direct steal from Kweskin’s. My book This Is All A Dream We Dreamed, an Oral History of the Grateful Dead includes a terrific story from Bob Matthews: he and Bobby Weir were high school students when they snuck into a club in Berkeley to hear the Kweskin band – and stare at its stunning singer, Maria D’Amato, who later became known the world over as Maria Muldaur.
Geoff and Maria Muldaur recorded as a duo after the jug band ended. Their professional and personal relationships ended in 1972, around the time Geoff Muldaur joined Paul Butterfield’s Better Days. After around 1976 he went solo, collaborating with a great variety of artists, and also composed some music for film and television. One of my favorite Geoff Muldaur projects was the Texas Sheiks, released in 2009. Jim Kweskin was on there, along with local mainstay Suzy Thompson.
The wikipedia entry on Geoff Muldaur is full of great info.
Support for the Grateful Dead Hour comes this week from:
Love Some Tea – grown and harvested naturally in Northern Thailand by the Hmong Hilltribe people. These plantation-free teas are flavored by hand, with all natural ingredients. Love Some Tea is sustainable hand-grown tea, and all the founders are Deadheads.
Airshow Mastering, putting the finishing touches on new and classic music, including recent releases by the Grateful Dead, Will Calhoun, Otis Taylor, David Gans, and The Earls of Leicester.Airshow Mastering
The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York. On Saturday, February 4, Railroad Earth comes to The Cap for a night of jammy bluegrass and rock ‘n’ roll. On Wednesday, February 15, legendary lead singer and songwriter for Creedence Clearwater Revival, John Fogerty, makes his Cap debut. Events, information, and ticketing at thecapitoltheatre.com.
Any chance the complete show of 1-18-74 will circulate? Love the stuff here!
I was given permission to broadcast the two songs only, and I am not allowed to share them otherwise. You’ll have to take it up with the Garcia family.
I loved this interview! I learned a lot about Geoff, the history of the jug band, his connection to the GD, how taken folks were with Maria (‘weren’t we all?’ or something of that ilk), and the ‘shtick with no shtick’ – what a great description. Great interview! I met him once at KGNU in Boulder, seemed like a really nice guy.