Muddy Waters

Seldom equalled and never surpassed, Muddy Waters changed the course of popular music. Beautifully remastered to capture Muddy's intoxicating power, this Rough Guide charts his early career in the Delta and pioneering time in Chicago.
The bonus CD features a group of stellar musicians, who played with Muddy Waters while he changed the face of blues music. Harmonica players James Cotton and Junior Wells, guitarists and singers Jimmy Rogers, Earl Hooker, Walter Horton, Jimmy Oden, Buddy Guy and Otis Rush, all passed through Muddy's band or played on his records. Others were merely influenced by him. But then again, of the blues musicians of the 1950s, there was scarcely anybody who wasn't…

Seldom equalled and never surpassed, Muddy Waters changed the course of popular music. Beautifully remastered to capture Muddy's intoxicating power, this Rough Guide charts his early career in the Delta and pioneering time in Chicago.
The bonus CD features a group of stellar musicians, who played with Muddy Waters while he changed the face of blues music. Harmonica players James Cotton and Junior Wells, guitarists and singers Jimmy Rogers, Earl Hooker, Walter Horton, Jimmy Oden, Buddy Guy and Otis Rush, all passed through Muddy's band or played on his records. Others were merely influenced by him. But then again, of the blues musicians of the 1950s, there was scarcely anybody who wasn't…

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…

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…

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 of the best recordings in Chess Records' 50th Anniverary series is the first of two bookend Muddy Waters collections, His Best 1947-55. Documenting Waters's most creatively and commercially successful years at Aristocrat/Chess, this collection begins with his formative years and ends with Waters at his peak. So you're in for a lot of terrific bottleneck slide guitar work as well as electric Chicago blues; what's to criticize? Superb remasterings of "I Can't Be Satisfied", "Rollin' and Tumblin'," "I'm Ready", and "Mannish Boy" are simply beyond reproach. With simple bass accompaniment from Ernest "Big" Crawford, Waters's bottleneck tracks are spare, haunting and, quite frankly, perfect country blues. And listening to Waters, Little Walter, Willie Dixon, and Jimmy Rogers piece together (and perfect very quickly) the classic Chicago sound is pure blues epiphany. At the very least, this collection shows you why Waters's rollicking stop-time classics like "Mannish Boy" and "I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man" have sparked endless imitations over the years–and why nobody has played them better since.