Maria Muldaur and David Torkanowsky, "Don't You Feel My Leg"

Maria Muldaur and David Torkanowsky performed "Don't You Feel My Leg" during our recent Fall Fund Drive. They did not know beforehand that we were now videotaping live shows, but they were gracious enough to allow us to film them in street clothes.

MARIA MULDAUR + DAVE TORKANOWSKY - DON'T YOU FEEL MY LEG from WWOZ New Orleans on Vimeo.

WWOZ Videographer Charlie Steiner shares his memories of Muldaur during the 1960s and early 1970s:

I was excited to learn that Maria Muldaur was coming to the OZ studio. I first saw her in the mid-60’s when she was Maria D’Amato, singing with the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, and became a fan right away. The Kweskin band was a revelation, appearing when the revival of folk and other American roots music was still going strong, but folk rock and hard rock ruled the charts and got the big airplay. Maria “joined in 1963. During the five years they were together, the jug band successfully modernized the sounds of pre-World War II rural music.” It was country, it was blues and it was jazz, featuring a full-time jug player — they had an aura of high energy 60’s wackiness along with a high level of musicianship.

Maria married fellow jug bander Geoff Muldaur and I saw them as a duo, and later got Maria’s first solo album. She’s one of the great stylists, and with WWOZ DJ / piano wizard Dave Torkanowsky she sang a song I heard her do many times back in the day. She recorded "Don't You Feel My Leg (Don't You Get Me High)" on her debut solo album “Maria Muldaur.” Writing in October 1973, Rolling Stones' reviewer Jon Landau described the album as "one of the half-dozen best" of the year, "the kind of glorious breakthrough that reminds me why I fell in love with rock & roll." (quotes from Wikipedia) Muldaur’s choice of material is stunning. On that first album alone she re-worked tunes by Jimmie Rodgers, Dolly Parton, Kate McGarrigle and Mac Rebennack.