With The Secret Handshake in 1998, his first solo album in nearly two decades, Geoff Muldaur re-established himself as a pre-eminent singer and performer in the blues tradition. On Password, Muldaur continues to mine that tradition with excursions into country, jazz, gospel and traditional folk.
Password can be viewed as a continuation of The Secret Handshake, given the similarities of the album titles and the appearance of “Got To Find Blind Lemon Part Two”, the conclusion of a song that began on the last record.
Password kicks off with “Kitchen Door Blues”, a Tennessee Williams poem set to a blues beat. “At The Christmas Ball” is a breezy Bessie Smith song that Muldaur sings with his daughter Clare. “Prairie Lullaby” is traditional country, with yodels right out of the Jimmie Rodgers songbook.
On “Drop Down Mama” and “Some Of These Days (I’ll Be Gone)”, Muldaur pays tribute to the bluesmen who influenced him — Sleepy John Estes and Charlie Patton, respectively — while “Mary Of The Wild Moors” is a nod to the folk tradition. “Wait ‘Til I Put On My Robe” and “Beautiful Isle Of Somewhere” display the yearning and hope of the best gospel. Kate and Anna McGarrigle add their distinctive harmonies to the former; an arrangement featuring violin, clarinet, bassoon and french horn brings out the spirituality of the latter.
Muldaur assembled a strong supporting cast, including guitarists Dave Alvin, Stephen Bruton and Greg Leisz and harmonica player John Sebastian. With a voice of experience, inventive arrangements and knowledgeable song selection, Muldaur has created an album that can stand with any he has released in a career that began in the early 1960s.
