Geoff Muldaur’s “Texas Sheiks’’ spans country-blues to old-time parlor songs. “I bounce around from project to project trying to come up with the next crazy idea,’’ he says.
(Lori Eanes)
G FORCE | GEOFF MULDAUR
Restless troubadour
Geoff Muldaur’s “Texas Sheiks’’ spans country-blues to old-time parlor songs. “I bounce around from project to project trying to come up with the next crazy idea,’’ he says.
(Lori Eanes)
Geoff Muldaur, who’s inexplicably unsung outside a vast circle of admiring musicians such as Bonnie Raitt and Richard Thompson, has never stood still for too long. From his 1960s Cambridge days in the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, through his folk-blues records alone and with then-wife Maria Muldaur, and up to his recent reimagining of jazzman Bix Beiderbecke’s music, Muldaur has never been easy to pin down. Nor would he want to be.
It’s not surprising, then, that his latest album takes him down another rabbit hole. Out today, “Texas Sheiks’’ pairs Muldaur with a top-notch band of roots musicians (including the late Stephen Bruton, Muldaur’s friend who partly inspired the collaboration). The collection of loose and lively roots music spans everything from shuffling country-blues to old-time parlor songs and even reunites Muldaur with Kweskin on two tunes.
Muldaur, who lives in Los Angeles (“which is God’s joke on me - I never liked the place, and I still don’t,’’ but he’s got a nice lady out there), says it’s just par for the course.
“You know me, I bounce around from project to project trying to come up with the next crazy idea,’’ Muldaur says, adding that his upcoming plans include a project in the British Isles, working on his chamber works, and eventually making an “electric badass album with horns.’’
Muldaur played Sunday’s gala fund-raiser in Boston for Betsy Siggins’s new project, the New England Folk Music Archives, and he has a solo show Thursday at Johnny D’s (8:30 p.m., $15). We caught up with Muldaur about his latest detour. JAMES REED
Q. Have you always had this kind of restless creative spirit?
A. Yeah, I have. I haven’t had it in terms of playing around the world. This is sort of new for me, the troubadour thing. But the idea of going into a dream, ever since my childhood, that’s what music did for me in the first place. It came out of a rotten home, and music just lifted me out of things, and it still does.
Q. You’re so acclaimed for your soulful voice, but how did this new album challenge you as a singer?
A. I did keep in mind one thing that I hadn’t as much in the past. Because we were winging things so much [in the studio], I led the band with my voice more than I usually do.
Q. Jim Kweskin sounds great on his two songs on this record.
A. Jim is underrated. Because of me and Maria [Muldaur] as the wunderkind singers of the jug band [in the ’60s], I thought he was underrated even as a singer.
Q. What sort of memories do you have of playing Club 47 (now Club Passim)?
A. Betsy [Siggins] was my first champion, man. I’ll never forget it. She was sitting against the back window of the old club [on Mount Auburn Street], and she was sort of like, “Hey, kid, you gonna be around for a while?’’ And the rest is history.
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