When Muddy Waters was performing Delta blues on Mississippi plantations in the early '40s, he couldn't possibly have imagined that he would one day be marketed as a folk singer. But this album, thrust out there to capitalize on the early '60s folk surge, is very much a Delta blues album — acoustic, low-key, sexy and midnight spooky — wrapped in a clear, warm recording. Waters' inimitable brawny bellow really jumps out amid the acoustic guitar, bass and subtle drumming (on most tracks). Five bonus tracks on the 1999 CD issue bring in a feistier vibe, with rollicking pe-anna and wailing harp.
This article appears in Aug 29 – Sep 4, 2007.
