Muddy Waters Best

Less a "best of" than an early full album that brings together some of Muddy Waters' earliest recordings for Chess - a great collection of early singles recorded in Chicago between 1950 and 1954! The work's relatively spare and rootsy overall - a great example of Chicago blues in its formative years, with some traces of a more southern style still in the mix.

Muddy Waters left Chess only when the label folded upon its sale in the mid-'70s, but by that point he was in need of the kind of career revival that only comes with a new label and new set of collaborators. That's precisely what Muddy received in 1976, when he signed with Blue Sky Records and teamed up with the hotshot blues-rock guitarist Johnny Winter, who produced Waters' acclaimed 1977 comeback, Hard Again, and its sequels, 1978's I'm Ready and 1981's King Bee, along with supporting Muddy for the 1979 concert set Muddy "Mississippi" Waters Live. All four albums are cherry-picked for Raven's 2009 compilation The Johnny Winter Sessions 1976-1981, which also adds a cut from the 2003 deluxe edition of Live and Muddy's duet "Walking Thru the Park" from Winter's 1977 album, Nothin' But the Blues…

One could definitely argue that this 16-track album doesn't in fact contain the best of Muddy Waters since it lacks any of his template-setting and explosive 1950s sides from Chess Records, being compiled instead from Waters' late-'70s and early-'80s output on the Blue Sky label with Johnny Winter in the producer's chair. No, the Chess tracks are the ones to get first, but the Blue Sky material makes for a nice addendum, featuring a slightly more refined sound that allows each song to develop easily and naturally. Highlights include a wonderfully ragged and loose acoustic do-over of "I Can't Be Satisfied," a sturdy "Good Morning Little School Girl," and a copycat but still fun version of Slim Harpo's "I'm a King Bee."

Steve Leggett - All Music

Muddy Waters had his second coming 30 years ago, when longtime friend and disciple Johnny Winter and his Blue Sky label returned him–after a series of listless recordings aimed at the rock audience–to the raw, powerful authenticity of his timeless Chess material with a series of powerful albums. Beginning with 1977's acclaimed Hard Again, a subsequent tour produced Muddy "Mississippi" Waters Live, recorded onstage in Detroit, New York, and Philadelphia with Muddy's band, Winter, and harmonica player/vocalist James Cotton. Enough live material remained for Legacy to release an expanded version with an entire second disc of unissued concert material. It seems even that wasn't the end. This collection returns again to those remarkable concerts, featuring Muddy on five tracks, among them a rousing "I Can't Be Satisfied," "Trouble No More," "Caldonia," and the closing "Got My Mojo Workin'." Winter and Cotton are no less powerful, Cotton redoing Jackie Brenston's hit "Rocket '88'" and Winter ripping up John Lee Hooker's "I Done Got Over It" and "Mama Talk to Your Daughter."

At the time of his very first recordings in 1941, Muddy Waters was not yet called Muddy Waters, and he played acoustic guitar. It wasn't his guitar since he didn't own one, but one that was lent to him by Alan Lomax, the man who discovered him deep in Mississippi when he was a farmer and an amateur musician.

Hard Again is a 1977 Chicago blues album by Muddy Waters. It was recorded by producer Johnny Winter in a rough, bare-bones style. Released on January 10, 1977, Hard Again was Muddy's first album on the Blue Sky label after leaving Chess Records. The sessions for Hard Again were recorded across the space of three days. Producing the session was Johnny Winter and engineering the sessions was Dave Still – who previously engineered Johnny's brother Edgar, Foghat, and Alan Merrill. For the recordings Muddy used his then current touring band of guitarist Bob Margolin, pianist Pinetop Perkins, and drummer Willie "Big Eyes" Smith.