This second volume of a two-volume entry in MCA's Chess 50th Anniversary reissue series chronicles the second decade of blues classics produced by the landmark company. Although Chess' big four (Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, and Sonny Boy Williamson) are all finely represented, influential sides by Elmore James ("Madison Blues"), Otis ...
Muddy's "unplugged" album was cut in September of 1963 and still sounds fresh and vital today. It was Muddy simply returning to his original style on a plain acoustic guitar in a well-tuned room with Willie Dixon on string bass, Clifton James on drums, and Buddy Guy on second acoustic guitar. The nine tracks are divvied up between full rhythm ...
The "pure" in the Pure series initially suggested the unadulterated, soothing dulcet tones of new age in the Pure Moods discs, but as the series took off, Universal Music realized they had a real marketable brand name here, so they decided to use it for different genres. The one thing that all the collections shared was that they were exceptional ...
There have been countless collections of Muddy Waters' classic Chess material released over the years, but Chess began to whittle down the domestic catalog toward the late '90s. The triple-disc Chess box remained in print, but they added two single-disc collections that each covered a specific period in Waters' career at Chess. Then, in 2001, MCA ...
For many back in the early '60s, this was their first exposure to live recorded blues, and it's still pretty damn impressive some 40-plus years down the line. Muddy, with a band featuring Otis Spann, James Cotton, and guitarist Pat Hare, lays it down tough and cool with a set that literally had 'em dancing in the aisles by the set closer, a ...
There are scores of Muddy Waters compilations out there, and while it might be overreaching a bit to call this 24-track single-disc set definitive, it is still a mighty good selection, including as it does all of Waters' major singles from Chess Records and its Aristocrat Records imprint between the years 1948 and 1964 along with a single track ...
In March 1977, Muddy Waters, Johnny Winter, and James Cotton did a concert tour together in support of Waters' then-recent Hard Again LP, on which Winter had played guitar (as well as produced) and Cotton had played harmonica. This CD, not released until about 30 years later, has an hour of music drawn from three different shows on the tour. It ...
The first 20-bit remastering of any of Muddy's late career work for Johnny Winter's Blue Sky label is of considerable interest. The fact that, in the wake of the earlier Blues Sky best-of disc, there's enough material to do another 60-minute-plus collection, also speaks well for this catalog. The clarity of the Super Bit Mapping audio brings out a ...
The importance of Muddy Waters' 1977 album Hard Again cannot be overstated, and its place as a near universal favorite in the Muddy Waters catalog is no mistake. Recorded in the last decade of his life, Hard Again was the first studio collaboration between Waters and guitarist Johnny Winter, who acted as producer on his last four recordings -- the ...
The source for this 1964 live performance appears to be Lippmann and Rau, the sponsors of Europe's American Folk Blues Festival. Considering that Chess Records never recorded Muddy's live set during this era, this disc is priceless. Otis Spann is at the piano, George Smith plays sax, Sammy Lawhorn is the second guitarist, and Francis Clay and ...
For the middle album of his Johnny Winter-produced, late-'70s musical trilogy, blues giant Muddy Waters brought a new spirit to some familiar material. Starting with members of Waters' touring band -- pianist Pinetop Perkins, bassist Bob Margolin, and drummer Willie "Big Eyes" Smith -- Winter added underrated guitarist (and longtime Waters foil) ...
This tribute album breaks no new ground but does a superb job of re-creating the Chicago ensemble sound, as well as the songs, of the latter-day Muddy Waters Band. That comes as no surprise, since the core group here literally was Muddy Waters' backup unit from 1974 to 1980: Bob Margolin and Luther "Guitar Jr" Johnson on guitars, Pinetop Perkins ...
This various-artists folk compilation is a companion CD to John Cohen's book of photographs, There Is No Eye. Cohen, as many people interested in the music assembled here will already know, is not just a photographer, but also a filmmaker, producer, and musician who was a founding member of the New Lost City Ramblers. Whether or not you have the ...
Featuring Bo Diddley stubbing his toe on a wah-wah pedal, Wolf and Muddy clearly ill at ease trying to sing songs they don't know and a super annoying female chorus giving out banshee shrieks approximately every 45 seconds, this is one very chaotic, untogether super session to try and wade through. ~ Cub Koda, All Music Guide
The title is a bit of a ringer, since this isn't a collaborative effort in any way, shape, or form. Muddy & the Wolf contains a half-dozen live Muddy Waters tracks with backing from Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield, and Otis Spann, the material culled from the Fathers & Sons sessions. The set also features tracks by Howlin' Wolf from his London ...
This was the most unusual, and probably the most difficult to assemble of MCA's Chess Box series, mostly because of the unusual nature of Willie Dixon's contribution to Chess Records. To be sure, Dixon rates a place in the history of the label right alongside that of Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and Little Walter, but his role was more subtle than ...
Hardly. What is on this two-disc set is a real hodgepodge of new and old tracks by a variety of artists ranging from soul shouters and blues-rockers to the true originators. Disc one gets off to a sluggish start with tracks from Johnny Winter, the Boneshakers, Colin James, Larry McCray, the Kinsey Report, John Hammond, Duke Robillard, and Terry ...
Of all the post-Fathers & Sons attempts at updating Muddy's sound in collaboration with younger white musicians, this album worked best because they let Muddy be himself, producing music that compared favorably to his concerts of the period, which were wonderful. His final album for Chess (recorded at Levon Helm's Woodstock studio, not in Chicago) ...
Chess Blues is a superlative four-CD box set featuring important tracks by all the main stars of the label (Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson), as well as much previously unreleased material. A well-done retrospective of Chicago blues in its heyday, as recorded by America's greatest blues label, Chess. ~ Cub Koda, All ...
The Chess Box does not contain all the great music Muddy Waters made. His talent and legacy are too large to be captured in a mere three discs, even one that spans from 1947 to 1972. This means, of course, that his legendary plantation recordings with Alan Lomax are not here, nor is his dynamic late-'70s comeback, Hard Again. But, truth be told, ...
King Bee was the last album Muddy Waters recorded. Coming last in a trio of triumphant studio outings, and produced by Johnny Winter, it is also a mixed bag -- literally. During the sessions for King Bee, Waters, his manager, and his band were all in dispute over money. According to the liner notes by guitarist Bob Margolin, who was the guitarist ...
In an attempt to make Muddy more sellable to his newly found white audience, Chess lumbered him with Hendrix-influenced psychedelic blues arrangements for Electric Mud. Commercially, actually, the results weren't bad; Marshall Chess claims it sold between 150,000 and 200,000 copies. Musically, it was as ill-advised as putting Dustin Hoffman into a ...
In its original edition as a 1979 live album, Muddy "Mississippi" Waters Live was a pleasing addition to the great bluesman's catalog. The first CD here is a straight reissue of the 1979 LP, the second disc including no less than an hour of additional music. All of the music on disc two was previously unreleased, and all of it was recorded at the ...
The resurgence of Chicago-based blues in the mid- to late 1960s came with an entirely new breed of icons to bear the torch. Among them were the decidedly electric Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Joining Muddy Waters (guitar/vocals) and Otis Spann (piano) on the aptly titled Fathers and Sons are three Butterfield Blues Band alumni: Michael Bloomfield ...
The successes of the breakthrough soundtrack from the film O Brother Where Art Thou? and the in-depth PBS television series Ken Burns' Jazz seem to have combined in the 2001 production of Palm Pictures' four-part TV series American Roots Music. The series touches on the development of the distinctly American styles of traditional folk, country, ...
We guarantee every item's condition, as described on Alibris. If you are not satisfied that an item is as described, return your purchase for a refund.
![The Definitive Collection [Geffen]](http://images.alibris.com/cover/h31794pph7b_t.jpg)
![Hard Again [Expanded]](http://images.alibris.com/cover/g32039l1y2q_t.jpg)
![Hoochie Coochie Man [LRC]](http://images.alibris.com/cover/f07647oa4ma_t.jpg)
![King Bee [Expanded]](http://images.alibris.com/cover/g32041b4cv8_t.jpg)
![Muddy "Mississippi" Waters Live [Deluxe Edition]](http://images.alibris.com/cover/g03719abwgi_t.jpg)
![Fathers and Sons [Expanded]](http://images.alibris.com/cover/f011503scl8_t.jpg)
![American Roots Music [Box Set]](http://images.alibris.com/cover/e98133f65ma_t.jpg)
Portions of content provided by All Music Guide or All Movie Guide. © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. All Music Guide and All Movie Guide are registered Trademarks of All Media Guide, LLC.