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Product Description
Personnel: Shane Theriot (guitar); David Torkanowsky (keyboards); Kenny Blevins (drums); Yolanda "Peb" Windsay, Jolinda Kiki Phillips, Shannon Powell (background vocals).
Audio Mixer: John Porter.
Recording information: Fudge Recording Studio, New Orleans; Greaseland Studio, San Jose, CA.
Photographer: Alan Mercer.
For her 39th solo album, Steady Love, Maria Muldaur has abandoned her recent practice of making acoustic blues recordings in tribute to early blues artists, and traveled to New Orleans to host an electric band (keyboardist Dave Torkanowsky, guitarist Shane Theriot, bassist Johnny Allen, and drummer Kenny Blevins) in a mixed collection of new and old folk, blues, and gospel tunes; the result is one of the best albums of her career. Released two weeks after the singer's 68th birthday, Steady Love is anchored by two songs written by the bluesy folk singer/songwriter Greg Brown, the title song and "Blues Go Walking," the former boasting a horn arrangement (courtesy of saxophonist Jimmy Carpenter) that has something of the languid feel of her hit "Midnight at the Oasis," and the latter reveling in a jug band feel that harks back to her days with Jim Kweskin. A mini-set of gospel tunes begins with the traditional "I Done Made It Up in My Mind," arranged by Muldaur as a shuffle, and continues with "Walk by Faith," a song by the late Stephen Bruton, recently celebrated for his contributions to the film Crazy Heart, which has an arrangement suggestive of Little Feat, before concluding with the soulful "As an Eagle Stirreth in Her Nest." The blues workout "Rain Down Tears" and Rick Vito's defiant closer "I Am Not Alone" (with slide guitar by the songwriter) feature daughter Jenni Muldaur on harmony vocals. Appropriately, feel is everything on this session, and that's never more apparent than on the one track flown in from a separate California session, a version of Percy Mayfield's "Please Send Me Someone to Love." It's not bad, just different, with a cleaner sound and a more restrained tone, as if borrowed from a Bonnie Raitt album. Most of Steady Love is steamier than that, and the better for it. ~ William Ruhlmann
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