Quick Q and A with Geoff Muldaur
 by Kathy S-B  ·  12 September 2009

Your intrepid me & thee reporter caught up with Geoff Muldaur today and asked him a few questions. (Hey, I’ve always wanted to be described as “intrepid” so why not now?) We’re anticipating Geoff’s arrival at our little ole coffeehouse on Mugford Street this coming Friday, September 18.

Tell us a little bit about your first memories of music.

My mother singing me to sleep. Jazz from my brother’s room…. Louis, Bix, Bessie et al. Walter Huston singing the “September Song”. Sabu singing “I Want To Be a Sailor.”

How and when did you discover the blues?

In Jazz compilations. 1st was Leadbelly’s “Easy Rider”. . . BW Johnson doing “Dark Was The Night.”

Any career highlights you’d like to share?

Felt nice to be playing a club in LA (The Ash Grove) in the sixties when Buddy Ebsen came to see us with his cronies. . . Paul Mason Howard, who played Zither with Leadbelly, Stan, the tall Keystone Cop, and the fellow who was the musical director for Fibber McGee and Molly. To be candid. . . none of my old memories can touch my recent ones. . . this new life as a troubadour.

You play all over the world, but especially in Europe. How is your music received abroad?

Hard to say exactly. They clap and they ask for encores, but maybe they’re just being nice.

What kind of music do you listen to when you have a chance?

Gospel, Beethoven, Django, Puccini, Louis Armstrong, Bartok, Mahler, Blind Lemon, Josephine Marsh, and on and on and on

What’s your take on young musicians discovering American roots music?

Better than watching TV.

Your discography is amazing. You’ve done so much and it’s all so diverse. Any favorite recordings?

I think “The Secret Handshake” is important for me because it put me back in things. It had been 17 years since I last recorded. A lot of feeling had to come out. And of course the Bix tribute, “Private Astronomy,” was a life long dream come true. I’m rather amazed I got to do it.