Maria Muldaur: "Yes We Can," or who doesn't want peace and love?

Lots of songs have messages, morals and assorted tales to tell, whether it's a plea to end a war or a plea to save the children, or a plea to save the farmers or just a "baby, please don't go."

Sometimes those songs work, sometimes they don't depending on how well they are written and how well they are performed. Sometimes the message is subtly whispered, sometimes it's a two by four upside the head.

And sometimes these songs are put together on an album, for a more complete statement. The good news is that I have two of those concept albums to write about at once. The bad news is... well, i have two of those albums to write about at once.

One is from the sultry blues artist Maria Muldaur -- "Yes We Can" -- and the other is from the longtime singing/songwriting member of Sapphire, the Uppity Blues Women, Gaye Adegbalola -- "Gaye Without Shame." I'll take them one at a time, and today will begin with Muldaur's effort(on Telarc).

In such weighty matters as making the world a better place, BlueNotes usually falls back on a catchy blues phrase or two ("It don't make sense you can't make peace"), but Maria has upped the ante here, and in every song she's selected, delivers a powerful message . I don't usually like to quote press releases, but for this album, she makes an eloquent statement about why she's made the recordings: "What is on my heart and mind is the sad, deplorable condition f our planet today."

And she's chosen a number of songs that speak to that, even though many were not written with her contemporary fears in mind. My favorite, partly because it's about saving the world and partly because you can dance to it, is Earl King's funky, driving "Make a Better World." If a song with all this energy doesn't make you want to save the planet, then we are all truly doomed.

It would be hard to do an album of this sort without a song by Bob Dylan, and indeed, Maria has chosen three, delivering them with the appropriate passion: "John Brown," "License to Kill" and the classic "Masters of War." There are others, but Dylan's poetic visions are hard to ignore. Another passionate plea is the rousing version of the traditional spiritual, "Down by the Riverside."

In addition to raising her own voice here, Maria has assembled a crackling little band called the Free Radicals, and a group of singers called The Women's Voices for Peace Choir, which includes, Bonnie Raitt, Odetta, Joan Baez, Jane Fonda (who knew she sang, too?) and Phoebe Snow. Maria's singing throughout is just right, adapted to the tone of each track, whether the music and message are upbeat or clinically depressed.

 I realize I may be sounding a little cynical here, and I don't want to. I spend my life wondering whether the glass is half empty or half full, and usually end up wondering when the glass is just going to fall and shatter.

But This is a finely crafted album with an honest, forthright message about how we've failed at running the world we live in and isn't it maybe time to do something about it. It's a topic I want to come back to and ramble on about in later posts, but in the meantime, if you have any thoughts about music like this, and whether it can make a difference, share your thoughts in a comment.

 Contest stuff

You may have noticed a comment a few days ago about our blues contest, challenging my answers to the color of the car Muddy Waters got from Chess after recording "Hoochie Coochie Man."  I mentioned the book I used, which I still favor, since I thought it was a much more specific reference to the incident. But RoyalJester made a good case for a green and yellow Olds, and not the red and white I had used. I agree that there's room for disagreement. I did pass that along to our marketing people who awarded the prizes, and I understand that because they had so many entries, they used a lottery to determine the winners.

I hope no one was unhappy with the results. It was the first time I've tried anything like that, and I wasn't sure that that I should have. Should we do it again? Let me know.

But it did generate a lot of comments and interest, and I hope you'll keep the comments coming.

Among the comments was a personal note from CindyG, who sent a message to BeerNotes, wondering where he's been -- he's still around. In fact, he was recently at the Victory Brewery in Downingtown, Pa., sampling some of their finest. The verdict? Golden Monkey is still his favorite Victory brew. It goes well with blues of any hue.