Maria Muldaur

"Maria Muldaur

& Her Garden of Joy"

Stony Plain Records

Some of the best music has come from hard times.

Which explains why in the middle of the worst global recession in decades, legendary singer Maria Muldaur is tugging everyone to their feet with a set of irresistibly joyful jug band stompers.

With the new album, Muldaur comes full circle. She made her first recordings 45 years ago with the Even Dozen Jug Band, a group that included Dave Grisman and John Sebastian.

That pair is reunited here with Muldaur, along with longtime pal Dan Hicks, who contributes two hipster tracks of his own.

Two other songs are Great Depression-era chestnuts, "Doggone the Panic is On" with its ragtime guitar, and the dirty "Bank Failure Blues."

Rollicking cuts like "Shout You Cats" and "Garden of Joy" speak for themselves, while the medley "Life's Too Short/When Elephants Roost in the Bamboo" has a chatty, laid-back New Orleans jazziness to it. And, the bluesy title track from Muldaur's Grammy-nominated "Sweet Lovin' Old Soul," also gets revived.

Like a lot of aging singers, 66-year-old Muldaur's voice isn't what it used to be. But, what it now lacks in polish and power, it makes up for in grit and a knowing world weariness.

Meaghan Smith

"The Cricket's Orchestra"

Sire Records

Here's a nice trend, sweet-voiced young women singing old-style songs.

To the list of singers like Norah Jones, K.D. Lang, and Adele, add Canadian Meaghan Smith.

Over the 11 tracks on this debut, Smith slips easily between genres and decades, from county to pop and back to 1940s jazz and cabaret.

In less talented hands, this sort of musical throwback can sound contrived and silly. Smith recalls a young Ella Fitzgerald, the shy girl hiding behind a big voice, and she clearly feels a connection to these vintage-sounding love songs. But, Smith is also a product of her generation, with instrumentation that makes turntable scratching feel at home with strings and horns in finger-snapping songs like "A Little Love."

A piano introduces the aching ballad, "A Piece for You," which slowly adds upright bass, strings, a flute and light percussion, until it sounds like something from The Beatles. "Five More Minutes" is more childlike in its longing for simpler times. "Drifted Apart" is a weepy country shuffle, while "I Know" rolls sweetly with a lazy Leon Redbone swagger, complete with whistled chorus.

But, the best of the songs also happen to be the ones that swing hardest. "If You Asked Me," builds from a loungy jive to a full-tilt big band blowout. And "Take Me Dancing" jumps with a Booker T-like Hammond B3 free-for-all.

Jack Bruce and Robin Trower

"Seven Moons Live"

Ruf Records

Forty years ago, Jack Bruce and Robin Trower were in some pretty influential British bands, Bruce in Cream and Trower in Procol Harem.

The pair have united occasionally over the years and on this album blaze through 13 cuts from a show recorded last February before an enthusiastic crowd in Holland.

The welcome, gruff warmth of Bruce's voice is here, although the forcefulness and range of his singing is much diminished. Trower, however, seems to have lost none of his chops.

Together, they get the Cream hits out of the way, "White Room," "Sunshine of Your Love" and "Politician" with Trower compensating for the weak vocal spots with blistering guitar muscle. "The Last Door," "Come to Me" and "Lives of Clay" also get a sweaty workout.

There are plenty of weaknesses here. The songs are bottom heavy and rely much of trippy nostalgia to keep them afloat. But, hey, it's Robin Trower and Hall of Famer Jack Bruce, and it's good to hear them again.