Maria Muldaur

Maria Muldaur teams up with Tuba Skinny for vintage jazz and blues album

Six-time Grammy nominee Maria Muldaur, who’s been dubbed “The First Lady of Roots Music” for previous albums touching on her wide-ranging influences from blues, country, folk, jazz and even jug band music, continues her exploration of the great American roots music songbook. On her latest excursion, this time into the vintage jazz and blues sounds of the 1920s and ’30s, Maria teams up with acclaimed New Orleans street band Tuba Skinny for Let’s Get Happy Together, scheduled for release on May 7 on Stony Plain Records. Tune in to OffBeat’s Facebook page on that date at 8 p.m. Central to watch the video.

Muldaur recorded Let’s Get Happy Together at Marigny Studios in New Orleans along with the members of Tuba Skinny, including Shaye Cohn (cornet), Todd Burdick (tuba), Barnabus Jones (trombone), Jason Lawrence (banjo), Craig Flory (clarinet), Greg Sherman (guitar), Max Bien-Kahn (guitar), and Robin Rapuzzi (washboard). This is Maria’s 43rd album release in a long and storied career, and her ninth on Stony Plain.

Maria and Tuba Skinny will celebrate the debut of a concert video of Let’s Get Happy Together on YouTube and Facebook filmed at the Dew Drop Inn, a legendary venue in Mandeville, Louisiana, built in 1895. OffBeat Magazine and New Orleans radio station WWOZ 90.7 FM are co-sponsoring the release.

The Crescent City has always been a favorite destination and inspiration for Muldaur and that New Orleans feel permeates throughout the album’s 12 tracks. When Maria discovered the music of Tuba Skinny, she learned that just like her, these musicians study, play and immerse themselves in the early blues, jazz and jug-band music of the ‘20s and ‘30s. “They were not just playing a marvelous repertoire of cool tunes with great skill and authenticity, but somehow channeling the very atmosphere and vibration of that bygone era,” she says.