14. Muddy Waters - Live at Newport 1960.

 I know the name Muddy Waters. I think most people do. I knew he was an important figure in the blues, but really didn't know his music. This is a live album from, you guessed it, the Newport Jazz Festival in 1960.  The quality of the music and the recording sounds more like a studio album. This band is tight. There is little ambient crowd noise until the end of the album, when he gets his mojo working.

 Muddy has a really laid back and smooth delivery. The harp and piano that are heard throughout the album are the perfect complement to his delivery. This is straightforward simple blues and it is fantastic. It is easy to see why he is so influential to the artists of the later sixties and seventies. The patter between songs is polite and succinct, he lets the music do the talking. The entire album flows together, kind of like a live performance. Oh wait, this is a live performance. The sound is so good you almost forget.

 He starts out with a couple of Willie Dixon tunes. I did some reading on Willie Dixon and he wrote a ton of classic blues songs. Hoochie Coochie man is a blues standard laden with somewhat ominous voodoo references. I don't know exactly what he's talking about (ie. John the Conqueroo), but I love the tune. He gets his mojo working twice and gets the crowd into action. Apparently he was a pioneer in the use of electric instruments in the blues genre. It works perfectly. He has polished up the same vibe that we visited with Robert Johnson and Howlin' Wolf, and I'm sure any blues band worth it's salt needs to know at least a few samples from this catalog.

 It is a relatively short performance, so there really isn't much to comment on. The tunes are well written and flawlessly performed. The Wikipedia review of the album talks about some dancing going on that left Waters a little petered out for the last tune. This was apparently well received by the audience, so Mr. Waters and company must have put on a good show as well as being excellent musicians. Rolling Stone placed this album at number 348 on the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. I'm sure it could have ranked a little higher, but there are lots of albums to consider. I'm happy this one made the list, I really enjoyed it.



Buy it here.

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