Geoff Muldaur
Blues Boy
Bullseye Blues Basic/Rounder CD BBB 11661-9635-2, 2001 (originally 1978/9) (41:24)

Two mixed albums reissued as one fine one

Glenn Brooks, 18 April 2001

Following up on Muldaur's fine comeback album, Secret Handshake (reviewed by our Dan Macintosh), Bullseye has re-issued the best tunes from a pair of albums he recorded for Flying Fish in the late seventies. This bargain-priced album is better than either of the originals, one with the same title as this, and the other Geoff & Amos, with Amos Garrett. Muldaur and Garrett were compatriots in the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, a modern hokum band that mixed good fun with sometimes extraneous goofs. The original albums had some goofs too, including re-workings of Chopin and Tchaikovsky and a tune called "Beavah Feavah" (you can guess). But here we get the real stuff: soulful, rootsy acoustic American music.

Geoff has also released Password, a cast-of-thousands followup to Secret Handshake. I haven't heard it yet, but I get nervous when I see everyone from the folky McGarrigle sisters to the avant garde trombone player Roswell Rudd on the same album. If I were me (and on good days, I am) I'd stick with Blues Boy.