Southern Winds

by Eugene ChadbourneBy the beginning of the '80s, vocalist Maria Muldaur would have gotten to the end of her rope with her big-time Warner Bros. contract, finding nothing there but the hollowed-out remains of music once every single interesting aspect has been excised. This album was cut when this process had just gotten underway, and on this album one still finds the dominate energy to be a kind of communal give and take between the songstress and her fellow musicians that harks back to her days in the Jim Kweskin Jug Band. Guitarists Les Dudek and Amos Garrett are from a bit heavier and unfortunately slicker mold, but they are on their best behavior here, making positive contributions to a band sound that for the most part gels. Keyboardist Mike Finnigan is one of several extremely talented players who are on hand, along with a crack horn section that includes the feisty Ernie Watts. In terms of a songs it is an odd batch, rather consistent in a bland way, lacking a signature hit or even one of the kind of goofy novelty numbers that really liven up her albums. The emphasis here was on romance -- men with cigars can be seen poking their noses into the studio -- and the choice of songs that was made is not one that can be said to have a high degree of edge. In fact, the message seems to be more along the lines of mellowing out. The final third of the album is pretty heavy on the Leon Russell material, none of which is that distinguished but was sure trendy at the time. Still, if one is assembling Muldaur albums from this period, this one will begin to rise to the top simply because some of the ones that followed were so much worse.