Maria Muldaur: Yes, We Can
Essay by Mindy Giles
1240 words

2008-an election year like no one has seen in decades with history-making candidates, and global attention focused on a world out of balance. You would be hard-pressed to find any person off the street who is not involved and certainly not affected. Count the legendary singer Maria Muldaur in this group. Now listen to how the times have compelled her with Yes We Can. Producer Muldaur has gathered together the most righteous guest performers and songwriters: Bonnie Raitt, Joan Baez, Odetta, Phoebe Snow, Holly Near, Jane Fonda and more, singing songs by Bob Dylan, Allen Toussaint, Earl King, Buddy Miller, Garth Brooks and Thomas Dorsey to name just a few.

The A-list players Maria dubbed "The Free Radicals" for this recording, have anchored some the funkiest, soul-savin'-est grooves to come out of New Orleans over the past thirty years: David Torkanowsky-B3 organ and piano, Tony Braunagel-drums, Hutch Hutchinson-bass, and Shane Theriot- guitar. These brilliant players and their killer arrangements on song after song will "make you wanna holler, throw up both your hands"-–just like Maria sings on Marvin Gaye's groundbreaking "Inner City Blues..."
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Maria Muldaur's evolving life journey from 1960s hippie love goddess to 1990s sultry, seasoned blues queen took an interesting and compelling turn when the millennium hit. To be sure, Maria has always followed her bliss, from her jug band days to having huge Grammy-nominated pop hits. She has spent a lifetime exploring various forms of American roots music. From Appalachian to bluegrass to blues, jazz and gospel, Maria has covered them all with great authenticity and soul. One could argue she was way ahead of her peers, virtually defining the sound of "Americana" years before the genre had an official name. Most recently, she became a multi-Grammy-nominee as both artist and producer for her series of tributes to America's early blues pioneers.

In early 2008, a friend sent her an article that declared her most famous song, "Midnight at the Oasis" was probably responsible for the conception of more children than any song of the 1970s'" and then signed off with "Thought you'd like to see this---have a nice day, Fertility Goddess." That email came about when Maria was due to conceive this, her 36th album. "After years of being given free artistic rein to produce whatever inspired me, I was in a bit of a quandary," she said. "I was wondering--what is there left to sing about? What is truly on my heart and mind most of all these days? What would a Fertility Goddess' job be in 2008??"

Her conclusion was one of deep concern over a world out of balance. "What is on my heart and mind is war, global climate change, massive debt and economic crisis, increasing food shortages, nuclear proliferation, genocide---and my ever growing frustration with our leaders. If things in this world continue the way they are, there soon won't be any people to make romance and babies, and no life-sustaining place to do so either!" After all these years of not particularly liking topical songs, Ms. Muldaur felt moved to make her first protest album. But, it quickly evolved into a pro-peace album. "I realized that the issues that concern me most go much deeper than singing songs that diss the current leaders in power. We have to say out loud we are so linked together. We have to work towards unity, towards peace.

She first chose three powerful Bob Dylan songs, "John Brown," "License to Kill" and "Masters of War." Represented in message and spirit with Dylan are other deeply important American songwriters who love/loved their country: Marvin Gaye, Allen Toussaint, Earl King, Thom Bell, Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, Buddy Miller, Garth Brooks. Says Maria, "Many of these songs were written in the 1960s and early 1970s, but because we have not evolved---we have de-volved in fact---it is vitally crucial now to voice these messages once again." As musical godfather Peter Seeger says, "If you love your country, you'll find ways to speak up for what is right. Finding the right songs and singing them over and over again is the right way to start."

Two songs from two New Orleans legendary laureates, Earl King and Allen Toussaint, launch the groove with "Make A Better World," and the title track "Yes, We Can." Hearing Maria and Bonnie Raitt right in the pocket exhorting us 'yes, we can!' is just one of the many epiphanies of the disc. These organic arrangements groove, glisten, intone, frighten, inspire, give blessed release. Maria's voice, one of the most easily identifiable in all of popular music, peels open nuanced layers of meaning –these songs simply feel different sung by a wise woman who has survived a cultural innocence lost.

In her definitive and slightly revised rendition of Dylan's "Masters of War," she is keening, lowdown, reaching very deep inside herself and finding the vocal fist of a grieving mother. This is dark, angry stuff. How to follow that? She figured perfectly. Listen to her lilting preaching on the next song---"no more war, no more war, no more war , just a little peace in this world—everybody wants to live together, why can't we live together?" In a single line, she has made the personal political and the politics devastatingly personal. 40-year-old questions-- "Why Can't We Live Together?" and "War (What Is It Good For"?) remind us of both Top 40 and underground FM radio that carried these messages the first time around.

The Buddy Miller/Victoria Williams-penned "This Old World" is delicious jug band joy. Quite possibly the surprise of this set is Garth Brooks' "We Shall Be Free." Maria, Joan Baez, Odetta, Holly Near and the whole Women's Voices for Peace Choir really take this one to church. It's understandable that when a reporter asked Brooks what he wanted to be remembered for –his immediate choice was this song.

The Clark Sisters are Detroit pioneers of contemporary gospel, and their song title "Pray for the USA," may sound nationalistic. Rather, it is a fierce indictment of the state of the country. In the passionate hands of Maria and Phoebe Snow, and their stunning swoops and soaring voices, this version would put anyone on their knees.

Collectively, The Women's Voices for Peace Choir Maria assembled for this record are heroes, 20th Century cultural warriors. The group of singers, writers and activists who gathered to raise their voices with Maria on these thirteen songs are a Mount Rushmore of women who have always walked it like they talked it: Joan Baez, Odetta, Bonnie Raitt, Jane Fonda, Holly Near, Phoebe Snow, Linda Tillery, Amma, Dr. Jean Shinoda Bolen, Anne Lamott and Marianne Williamson. Together, they give the album benedictive release with the joyous southern spiritual, "Down By The Riverside (Ain't Gonna Study War No More").

"It's a prayer in the hearts of most humans since time began," says Maria. "A vision of peace on earth is something in nearly every human heart. It seems like America is finally waking up from a long cultural hypnosis-a walking stupor. The collective unconscious has been unconscious too long. I'm so hoping this album will be taken to heart—to be a new soundtrack to the changing paradigm we can create. Yes, we can all make a difference, if we work together. War is outmoded. We need to act on this notion.
It's now or never."

Maria Muldaur's Yes We Can (CD-83672) is due at retail on July 22, 2008.


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