When we last heard from heartland musician Geoff Muldaur in
\n1999, he was trying to find the grave of Blind Lemon Jefferson and
\nwas spreading his knowledge of American folk and gospel music
\nthrough
\nThe Secret Handshake<\/i>. (One assumes he wasn’t doing them all
\nat the same time.)<\/p>\n
Now, with his latest release
\nPassword<\/i>, Muldaur starts some new tales, ends others, and
\ncontinues in the same vein as his previous effort, even though this
\none’s a little more preachy than the last.<\/p>\n
Like
\nThe Secret Handshake<\/i>,
\nPassword<\/i> is not the easiest disc to get into at times.
\nDepending on your musical tastes, you may or may not find a
\nspiritual song like “Wait ‘Til I Put On My Robe” appealing; I
\nhappened to think this one was stretched out a bit too long.
\nLikewise, you might not like the more modern spin put on a song
\nlike “Trouble Soon Be Over”; this, I
\ndid<\/i> like, and appreciated how Muldaur tried to shed a new
\nlight onto the work of Blind Willie Johnson.<\/p>\n
And there indeed are times on
\nPassword<\/i> where less said might have been more powerful, as
\non “Light Rain,” a track which means well but just seems to stretch
\non into eternity. As for “At The Christmas Ball,” this might be a
\nslice of pure Americana, but it just doesn’t seem to fit in with
\nthe rest of the disc’s mood, and it sticks out noticably. (The fact
\nthat it’s a Christmas song isn’t the reason for this.) The
\ndifference between the two albums is that these moments are more
\npronounced on
\nPassword<\/i>, while they tended to slip into the background on
\nThe Secret Handshake<\/i>.<\/p>\n
In
\nPassword<\/i>‘s defense, there are more moments on this disc
\nwhich are instantaneously joyous. Take the album’s opening tracks
\n“Kitchen Door Blues” and “Drop Down Mama” as examples – two
\nwonderful slices of folk which make the listener smile as they tap
\ntheir foot to the melodies. The same can be said for “Some Of These
\nDays (I’ll Be Gone)” and “Got To Find Blind Lemon Part Two,” which
\nplace Muldaur in the best light possible. (Did Muldaur find
\nJefferson’s grave? Listen to the song and find out.)<\/p>\n
Muldaur assembles a fine cast of supporting musicians, including
\nStephen Bruton, John Herron and labelmate Dave Alvin. But in the
\nend, it’s the songs which make or break
\nPassword<\/i> – and this effort is a little more hit-or-miss from
\nMuldaur.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6518],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-36943","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-geoff-muldaur","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36943"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}