In 1974, Maria Muldaur became a star with the sultry “Midnight at the Oasis,” but more than a decade before her signature song became a Top 10 hit, she had a front-row seat to another musician’s rise: Bob Dylan.
Muldaur, who turns 84 on Sept. 12, was born Maria D’Amato in New York City’s Greenwich Village in 1942. Growing up in a neighborhood that would become one of the epicenters of the American folk revival put her in the middle of an extraordinary musical community.
She began performing in the early 1960s, playing with John Sebastian, David Grisman and Stefan Grossman in the Even Dozen Jug Band before becoming a featured vocalist and occasional fiddle player with Jim Kweskin & the Jug Band.
And somewhere in that bustling Greenwich Village scene, a young Bob Dylan caught her attention.
In a 2016 interview, Muldaur recalled the folk clubs clustered around MacDougal and Bleecker streets, where musicians could play a set, pass a bread basket around for tips and then pack up their instruments and head to another club.
Dylan was one of the musicians she encountered during those years.
“About 1962 is the first time I remember noticing Bob Dylan,” Muldaur recalled, describing how he “kind of sauntered onto the scene with his little cap and his guitar.” She remembered frequently seeing him at Gerde’s Folk City and being struck by his performances.
Muldaur admitted that she hadn’t been particularly interested in the protest music dominating parts of the folk scene at the time. Dylan was different.
“I sat up and took notice and realized that his songs were very different and very deep,” she said, citing songs including “Masters of War” and “Only a Pawn in Their Game.” She felt Dylan’s songwriting offered a more universal perspective than much of what she was hearing around her.
Muldaur’s own career eventually took her far beyond the Village. After her years in the jug-band scene, she launched a solo career and released her self-titled debut album in 1973. The album climbed to No. 3, while “Midnight at the Oasis” became her breakout hit, reaching No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1974.
Her connection to Dylan’s music also came full circle decades later.
After hearing Dylan’s “Moonlight,” Muldaur told him how much she loved the song and that she was considering recording it. According to Muldaur, Dylan encouraged her, telling her he thought she could do a great job with it.
That conversation helped inspire Heart of Mine: Maria Muldaur Sings Love Songs of Bob Dylan, her 2006 album devoted to Dylan’s romantic songwriting. Muldaur said she wanted to find her own way into the material rather than reproduce Dylan’s recordings, ultimately giving many of the songs a bluesy, Louisiana flavor.
More than six decades after she first noticed the young songwriter “saunter” onto the Greenwich Village scene, Muldaur remains part of the remarkable musical history that surrounded Dylan before either of them became famous.
Related: Rock Hall Legend Makes Candid Admission About Bob Dylan: ‘Sometimes I Don’t Know What the Hell He’s Talking About’
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