(New York, NY) Geoff Muldaur emerged as a music artist in the 1960s as part of the era's growing folk, blues & folk-rock scenes. Among the many groups and musicians he has played with over the years, Muldaur was one of the original members of The Jim Kweskin Jug Band of Cambridge, Massachusetts as well as the Woodstock based group, Paul Butterfield’s Better Days.
In 2008 Muldhaur’s longtime friend and fellow musician, Stephen Bruton, was diagnosed with a terminal illness. Shortly after, the two veterans entered the studio with a formidable group of roots music all-stars and recorded an excitedly authentic and entertaining exploration of traditional American folk, blues, country, ragtime and jug band music.
The fruit of those sessions is a band and album both named GEOFF MULDAUR AND THE TEXAS SHEIKS. The album, which was released in fall of 2009, features a collection of traditional arrangements and songs penned by arists that include Big Bill Broonzy, Skip James and Robert Johnson. It is undoubtedly these songs, All By Myself, Hard Time Killin’ Floor and Travellin’ Riverside, that blues fans will gravitate to, but the album as whole is a fun listen and will transport you to a simpler time, when banjos, mandolins, dobros, standup basses and fiddles didn’t seem so out of place in popular music.
This album may not satisfy the standard electric blues fan, whose tastes may lean more toward blues-rock, but fans of delta blues, folk, bluegrass, country and even some jazz, may be pleasantly surprised that collection of songs played this well and authentically, with production values as high as this, could be released in 2009…the same year as such notable dreck as The Black Eyed Peas’ Boom Boom Pow and I Gotta Feeling.
Sadly Stephen Bruton passed away in May of 2009, before the release of GEOFF MULDAUR AND THE TEXAS SHEIKS, but with albums like this one, his music and in turn his spirit lives on…as does, thankfully, the music of a nearly forgotten era in American history.
In 2008 Muldhaur’s longtime friend and fellow musician, Stephen Bruton, was diagnosed with a terminal illness. Shortly after, the two veterans entered the studio with a formidable group of roots music all-stars and recorded an excitedly authentic and entertaining exploration of traditional American folk, blues, country, ragtime and jug band music.
The fruit of those sessions is a band and album both named GEOFF MULDAUR AND THE TEXAS SHEIKS. The album, which was released in fall of 2009, features a collection of traditional arrangements and songs penned by arists that include Big Bill Broonzy, Skip James and Robert Johnson. It is undoubtedly these songs, All By Myself, Hard Time Killin’ Floor and Travellin’ Riverside, that blues fans will gravitate to, but the album as whole is a fun listen and will transport you to a simpler time, when banjos, mandolins, dobros, standup basses and fiddles didn’t seem so out of place in popular music.
This album may not satisfy the standard electric blues fan, whose tastes may lean more toward blues-rock, but fans of delta blues, folk, bluegrass, country and even some jazz, may be pleasantly surprised that collection of songs played this well and authentically, with production values as high as this, could be released in 2009…the same year as such notable dreck as The Black Eyed Peas’ Boom Boom Pow and I Gotta Feeling.
Sadly Stephen Bruton passed away in May of 2009, before the release of GEOFF MULDAUR AND THE TEXAS SHEIKS, but with albums like this one, his music and in turn his spirit lives on…as does, thankfully, the music of a nearly forgotten era in American history.
*If you enjoyed this article, you may also enjoy: The First Family of Jazz
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