Geoff Muldaur & Jim Kweskin
The Common Fence Point Music series began the first of several concerts in Newport at Channing Memorial Church, the home of the former Channing Music Series. For their kick off they selected Geoff Muldaur teamed with Jim Kweskin. The two are living history of early American blues and folk music. They offer a brief narrated history of the pieces they share and they pick guitar and banjo beautifully. The vocals were strong and a solo, beautifully measured blues piece that Muldaur offered in the second set was worth the price of admission. My own wish was that the producers had provided balanced light as Muldaur was over lighted and Kweskin under lighted. I did my best to capture them and I hope that you enjoy this little selection.
Below are brief summaries from the musicians' web sites.
"Geoff Muldaur is one of the great voices and musical forces to emerge from the folk, blues and folk-rock scenes centered in Cambridge, MA and Woodstock, NY. During the 1960's and '70's, Geoff made a series of highly influential recordings as a founding member of the Jim Kweskin Jug Band and the Paul Butterfield's Better Days group, as well as collaborations with then-wife Maria and other notables (Bonnie Raitt, Eric Von Schmidt, Jerry Garcia, etc.). He left the stage and recording world in the mid-1980's for a working sabbatical but continued, however, to hone his craft, albeit 'flying beneath radar'. He composed scores for film and television, and produced off-beat albums for the likes of Lenny Pickett and the Borneo Horns and the Richard Greene String Quartet. Geoff's his definitive recording of "Brazil" provided the seed for - and was featured in - Terry Gilliam's film of the same title. And about a performance in London, The London Times wrote, "Immaculate guitar picking was matched by vocals that were rich, and bore out the guitarist, Richard Thompson's praise for him: 'There are only three white blues singers, and Geoff Muldaur is at least two of them.'"
A communal-like musical ensemble, the Kweskin Jug Band was formed by Jim Kweskin, who had been inspired by a folk group, the Hoppers, featuring washtub bass player John "Fritz" Richmond. As a student at Boston University, Kweskin would often attend the Hoppers' performances at Cafe Yana in Harvard Square, learning much about guitar fingerpicking by watching the band's fingers. After Richmond was drafted into the U.S. Army, serving time in Korea and Europe, Kweskin began to frequent other folk clubs in Cambridge and Boston. Before long, he was playing guitar well enough to perform English and Appalachian ballads in folk coffeehouses.
Read MoreBelow are brief summaries from the musicians' web sites.
"Geoff Muldaur is one of the great voices and musical forces to emerge from the folk, blues and folk-rock scenes centered in Cambridge, MA and Woodstock, NY. During the 1960's and '70's, Geoff made a series of highly influential recordings as a founding member of the Jim Kweskin Jug Band and the Paul Butterfield's Better Days group, as well as collaborations with then-wife Maria and other notables (Bonnie Raitt, Eric Von Schmidt, Jerry Garcia, etc.). He left the stage and recording world in the mid-1980's for a working sabbatical but continued, however, to hone his craft, albeit 'flying beneath radar'. He composed scores for film and television, and produced off-beat albums for the likes of Lenny Pickett and the Borneo Horns and the Richard Greene String Quartet. Geoff's his definitive recording of "Brazil" provided the seed for - and was featured in - Terry Gilliam's film of the same title. And about a performance in London, The London Times wrote, "Immaculate guitar picking was matched by vocals that were rich, and bore out the guitarist, Richard Thompson's praise for him: 'There are only three white blues singers, and Geoff Muldaur is at least two of them.'"
A communal-like musical ensemble, the Kweskin Jug Band was formed by Jim Kweskin, who had been inspired by a folk group, the Hoppers, featuring washtub bass player John "Fritz" Richmond. As a student at Boston University, Kweskin would often attend the Hoppers' performances at Cafe Yana in Harvard Square, learning much about guitar fingerpicking by watching the band's fingers. After Richmond was drafted into the U.S. Army, serving time in Korea and Europe, Kweskin began to frequent other folk clubs in Cambridge and Boston. Before long, he was playing guitar well enough to perform English and Appalachian ballads in folk coffeehouses.
