CORRECTION : Maria Muldaur’s concert tonight (Thursday) will begin at 7:30 p.m. A gumbo and jambalaya dinner will be available beginning at 6 p.m. The story has been corrected.
PORT TOWNSEND — When Maria Muldaur sings her 1974 hit “Midnight at the Oasis” tonight, it will be familiar icing on a whole new cake.
“I’ve done an album a year since ‘Midnight at the Oasis’ and am most excited about the new music, but when I play that song, you can see the reaction on people’s faces,” Muldaur, one of 31 faculty members for Centrum’s Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Festival & Workshop, said Tuesday.
“It raises all kinds of very happy and, dare I say it, X-rated memories that flicker across people’s minds when I perform the song,” added the singer, who would not allow photographs to be taken of her.
“It sparked people’s imagination,” Muldaur said. “It’s a very romantic, sexy and happy song.”
Centrum’s acoustic blues workshop, which began Sunday and ends this coming Sunday, has been attended by more than 225 people who want to learn how to sing, play and live the blues.
Muldaur, 70, will be featured in a concert at 7:30 p.m. today at McCurdy Pavilion in Fort Worden State Park. Bon Appetit will offer a gumbo and jambalaya dinner beginning at 6 p.m. on the Littlefield Green next to the pavilion.
Tickets to the Bluesiana Dance Party with Muldaur and her Red Hot Bluesiana Band are $20. The dinner is $17.
An acoustic blues showcase is set for 1:30 p.m. Saturday at the same location. Tickets are $43, $33 or $23, depending on seat selection.
Blues in the Clubs will be from 8 p.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday.
Venues participating are the Public House, the Cellar Door, the Boiler Room — which offers free admission to all ages — the American Legion Hall — open to all ages — the Marina Room and the Shanghai restaurant.
During Muldaur’s performance, the latest iteration of “Midnight” is certain to be heard.
“The song is very jazzy,” she said.
“I can spontaneously riff on it like a jazz tune, and if it even comes close to the original, my fans are happy,” she said.
“They don’t need to hear it the same way as the record. This is the way I do it now.
“There is another bit of luck, that my big hit wasn’t ‘Wild Thing’ or some dumb three-chord song. It would have gotten really tedious by now,” Muldaur said.
This is Muldaur’s third turn on the Centrum faculty. The Mill Valley, Calif., resident is teaching a class about how to find a blues voice.
“I have a great time doing the class, although when I go in, I always wonder what I’m going to teach,” she said.
“But when I get in there, I’m not really in my body; I’m so focused on each student and what I need to bring out in them.
“It’s all about what you are expressing from the depths of your soul and your inner intention.”
She said most find their voices growing lower and gruffer as they age, “and that only adds to the sound of the blues.”
An example of a great blues vocalist is Bob Dylan “because he’s singing from a real, authentic place,” Muldaur said.
“It’s not about sounding like Enrico Caruso; it’s about singing the truth in a very simple and honest way,” she said.
“[Dylan’s] voice has changed a lot, but he still kills me, and a lot of the stuff he’s doing recently is very informed by the blues.
“It’s not so much the instrument but what you do with it.”
Muldaur knew Dylan in the early 1960s as part of the folk music scene, although she prefers to call it “American roots music.”
At that time, she performed in various jug music bands with her then-husband, Geoff Muldaur, exploring these roots out of a sense of wonder and curiosity.
“I was so intrigued and enthralled by this music that when I heard it, I quit college so I could spend time in the Carolinas learning to sing and play the fiddle,” she said.
“When we started discovering all these amazing blues artists, we were doing it to follow our passion, like most of those who come here.
“They aren’t doing it to have a big career; it’s because it’s the music of the people, and people want to keep it alive.”
Daryl Davis, who is in his third year as artistic director, agrees.
“This festival preserves the heritage of traditional blues,” he said.
“When a lot of people hear the word ‘blues,’ they think of Jonny Lang, Stevie Ray Vaughn or Eric Clapton,” Davis said.
“Those guys are great, but this is the place where you can learn the original styles from which everyone evolved.”
Davis said the blues and country styles are nearly identical in chord structure and lyrical content.
“It’s all pure music, the way it was performed while sitting on the back porch,” he said.
“They are singing from their guts and their soul and their hearts, and the only reason they call it ‘country’ is because they’re white.
“When black people do the same music, they call it blues.”
Davis said technology has made it easier to produce higher-quality recordings, but he objects to technology used to modify the music itself.
“There is no reason for anyone to release a record today with a mistake, because it can be fixed,” Davis said.
“But when you start messing with the music, you take out the human quality, and that’s the vital point of the blues: how it makes you feel.”
Tickets and wristbands can be purchased at www.centrum.org or by phoning 800-746-1982.
Tickets are also available at the box office beginning one hour before each show.
For more information, visit www.centrum.org/blues.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
