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Geoff Muldaur | Password

CD, Hightone/Sonic Rendezvous

Tekst: Alex Tobin

Publicatiedatum: 18 januari 2001

In the Fall of 1998, Geoff Muldaur released 'The Secret Handshake', his first album in seventeen years. Having been silent musically for all of those years, the former Jim Kweskin Jug Band member (and ex-hubby of Maria) peeled off the business suit and grabbed a guitar.
'Password' - once again a clandestine title - picks up where 'The Secret Handshake' left off, opening with 'Kitchen Door Blues', a poem by Tennessee Williams set to music with some able lap guitar work by David Lindley. A Kurt Weill-influenced adaptation of Sleepy John Estes' 'Drop Down Mama' follows, and this time the guitar part is taken over by labelmate Dave Alvin.
In fact, 'Password' has a host of stellar guests: Aside from Lindley and Alvin, there are cameos by Greg Leisz, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Geoff's daughter Clare, John Sebastian, and even Van Dyke Parks. The whole album is a fine collection of tunes, and Muldaur is able to grasp at many different straws, coming up with a wide variety of source material and styles.
However, what unfortunately often goes missing in this equation is the spontaneity, the guts, the soul of the music. Sadly, all too often the songs sound somewhat stale or sterile, lacking that certain extra push to send them over the edge. It's like Colonel Sanders forgot the secret ingredient...
That's not to say that this is a bad album. Not at all. Geoff Muldaur is an accomplished tunesmith (For some reason, he is literally huge in Japan!), but 'Password' sounds like he's sitting just a little too comfortably right now. (Oh - one last thing: Larry Rivers might be a famous pop artist, but 'Password''s cover is already in the running for ugliest of the year.)

http://www.kindamuzik.net/recensie/geoff-muldaur/password/79/
Meer Geoff Muldaur op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/geoff-muldaur