Maria Muldaur — “One Hour Mama – The Blues of Victoria Spivey” — Nola Blue Records
More than a half-century has passed since Maria Muldaur’s seductively popular 1973 hit, “Midnight at the Oasis.”
While considerable time has passed since then, the mood has not, as evidenced by the sweet and sultry sounds on Muldaur’s latest, “One Hour Mama – The Blues of Victoria Spivey.”
Muldaur has moved through her early, folksy Americana years to a series of blues albums that pay tribute to the music’s vintage roots.
This splendid session honors the great Victoria Spivey, because, as Muldaur says: “When I was a young aspiring singer in the early 1960s, one of the great Classic Blues Queens of the 1920s & 30s, Victoria Spivey, took me under her wing & mentored me….”
Spivey was notable as a blues artist because of the depth and breadth of her musical talents. Her first recording, the salaciously self-penned “Black Snake Blues,” was a hit, followed by her own unique recording and work with the legendary likes of Louis Armstrong, Lonnie Johnson, Bessie Smith, Memphis Minnie and Blind Lemon Jefferson, and much later, Bob Dylan. And of course, Muldaur. She also worked in movies and Broadway musicals in the 1930s and ‘40s. In 1961, she co-founded Spivey Records with one of her husbands, Len Kunstadt.
On “One Hour Mama,” Muldaur pays glorious tribute to Spivey’s sassy blues style with a selection of vintage music from that era, with special emphasis on its splendid bawdiness that threatens to make its double entendres single again.
Muldaur’s vocals, at age 82, are equally splendid. Her voice has always been honey mixed with whisky, and now the whisky has aged to smooth perfection with the honey still as sweet. She’s smoky, sensuous and downright sexy, with musical backers who float along effortlessly on honky-tonk piano runs and brassy horns from a cadre of excellent musicians, including the sparkling New Orleans band, the criminally unheralded Tuba Skinny. There are also magical duets with Taj Mahal and Elvin Bishop.
The smartly chosen album opener, the classic “My Handy Man,” sets the pace for the session with its vintage jazz-band vibe, Muldaur’s steamy vocal, and its easy-rolling libidinous lyrics: “He shakes my ashes, greases my griddle / Churns my butter, strokes my fiddle / My man is such a handy man!” Enough said!
“What Makes You Act Like That?” is a sprightly duet with a growling Elvin Bishop on this Lonnie Johnson chestnut, followed by a pair of Spivey originals: “Don’t Love No Married Man” offers a marital warning amid timeless relationship advice, and a lilting “Dreaming of You” makes a surprisingly tender lyrical turn with a lovely piano interlude.
The lusty “Organ Grinder Blues” by Clarence Williams tiptoes through an innocent musical intro, then Muldaur slinks in with her entendres at full steam: “Organ grinder, play that melody / Take your organ, and grind some more for me.” Another Spivey tune follows, with its upbeat warning of “No, Papa, No!”
The delicious title track, “One Hour Mama,” slides in with crackling horns, and Muldaur has its number (which turns out to be “one”): “I’m a one hour mama / So no one minute papa / Ain’t the kind of man for me.”
“Funny Feathers” is a rollicking 1929 song by Spivey, on which Louis Armstrong played on her early recording. Tuba Skinny offers masterful backing on “Gotta Have What It Takes” another Spivey song, with Muldaur and Taj Mahal in a duet of full of sly back and forth wordplay. “Any-Kind-A-Man, (will be better than you)” a lively Hattie McDaniel song follows. Two more Spivey songs close everything down: “Down Hill Pull” and the powerfully mournful “T-B Blues.”
“One Hour Mama” is described in the album notes by Maria Muldaur as “a loving tribute to Victoria Spivey for all she brought to the blues and for the great influence she was on my musical journey. ENJOY!”
I wholeheartedly second that emotion! Muldaur and her musical compatriots have created a joyous celebration of Victoria Spivey’s music, along with a welcome reminder of the vitality of that seldom-heard musical era.
Give yourself a tasty blues treat and ENJOY! this music.
Here’s the title song, first from this album, and then the Victoria Spivey version:
Track Listing and Credits:
1. My Handy Man (Andy Razaf)
2. What Makes You Act Like That? (duet with Elvin Bishop) (Lonnie Johnson, © Wixen Music Publishing, Inc. o/b/o Lonesome Ghost Blues)
3. Don’t Love No Married Man (Victoria Spivey)
4. Dreaming of You (Victoria Spivey, © Victoria Spivey)
5. Organ Grinder Blues (Clarence Williams)
6. No, Papa, No! (Victoria Spivey)
7. One Hour Mama (Porter Grainger, © Handy Brothers Music Co., Inc.)
8. Funny Feathers (Reuben Floyd and Victoria Spivey)
9. Gotta Have What It Takes (duet with Taj Mahal) (Victoria Spivey and Harold Grey, © Victoria
Spivey and Harold Grey)
10. Any-Kind-A-Man (Hattie McDaniel)
11. Down Hill Pull (Victoria Spivey, © Universal-McA Music Publishing Div. of Universal)
12. T-B Blues (Victoria Spivey)
Blues Roadhouse 