Most people know Maria Muldaur for Midnight at the Oasis, the 1973 hit that reached number six on the Billboard Hot 100. But this episode argues the pop moment was a brief detour in a lifelong mission to translate early American roots music for new generations. Born Maria Grazia Rosa Domenica D'Amato in 1942 and raised in Greenwich Village, she absorbed Hank Williams, Kitty Wells, Bob Wills, Muddy Waters, Alan Freed's broadcasts, and doo-wop before diving into the 1960s folk revival and the jug band scene.

The discussion follows her from the Even Dozen Jug Band with John Sebastian and David Grisman to Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band, her duo albums with Geoff Muldaur, her 1974 album Waitress in a Donut Shop and its hit I'm a Woman, and the feminist-era criticism she pushed back against. It then traces her opening for the Grateful Dead, singing ...