Maria Muldaur - 'One Hour Mama: The Blues of Victoria Spivey'

 

Maria Muldaur, has been singing the blues since the early 1960s, and was making so-called "Roots" and "Americana" albums, before those descriptors were "a thing".

'One Hour Mama: The Blues of Victoria Spivey', was released this past July on the Nola Blue Records label.

As Maria remembers in the album’s liner notes:

"When I was a young aspiring singer in the early 1960s, one of the great Classic Blues Queens of the 1920s and ‘30s, Victoria Spivey, took me under her wing and mentored me.  Although, of course, I appreciated it at the time, over the years I’ve come to realize just how important her encouragement and support were to me and so many other musicians!”

This remarkable album transports us back to the 1920s and early 1930s through Maria’s captivating renditions of Victoria Spivey’s songs.  Each tune is expertly performed, capturing the authentic feel of records from a bygone era without the clicks and pops of old 78 rpm records.  

Maria duets with Elvin Bishop on "What Makes You Act Like That?", and with Taj Mahal on "Gotta Have What It Takes". 

The backing band is James Dapogny’s Chicago Jazz Band
James Dapogny—piano, arranger
Kim Cusack—clarinet, alto saxophone
Russ Whitman—clarinet, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone
Jon-Erik Kellso—trumpet
Chris Smith—trombone, tuba
Rod McDonald—guitar, banjo
Kurt Krahnke—bass
Pete Siers—drums

This is one of my favorite albums of 2025

For the freeload, what are your favorite releases (or re-releases) of 2025?