ELLEN McILWAINE—(United Artists)::This oughtta send all the solo simper sisters scurrying for safety. True, the production veers too close to the recent Raitt route for comfort but if that means Ellen's sassy slide leads are too infrequent, her voice still ain't takin' no lip from woman, man, or mixing board.

M.D.

MARIA MULDAUR—Southern Winds (Warner Bros.)::Have you noticed fjow all the (male) critics have suddenly ganged up on Maria Muldaur's reputed weight gain, ready to consign her and the extra pounds to the vocalist scrapyard for good? Worse yet, Ms. Muldaur's record company has gone along with this morphological assassination, by substituting an idealized painting of Maria for a photo of her stilllovely self, on the cover of the new set. When's the last time you read a record review pointing out that among James Taylor's band, for instance, Russ Kunkel is getting real bald, or that Leland Sklar is quite a tub beneath those figureflattering bib overalls? (You just did.)

R.R.