Performer Notes:

• 2 LPs on 1 CD: MUDDY WATERS SINGS BIG BILL BROONZY (1960)/FOLK SINGER (1977).
• Includes liner notes by Bob Schnieders.
• MUDDY WATERS SINGS BIG BILL BROONZY:
• Personnel: Muddy Waters (vocals, guitar); Pat Hare (guitar); James Cotton (harmonica); Otis Spann (piano); Andrew Stephenson (bass); Francey Clay, Willie Smith (drums).
• Recorded in Chicago, Illinois, July and August 1959. Includes original liner notes by Studs Terkel.
• FOLK SINGER:
• Personnel includes: Muddy Waters (vocals, guitar); Buddy Guy (guitar); Willie Dixon (bass); Clifton James (drums).
• Recorded at Tel Mar Recording Studios, Chicago, Illinois on September 1963. Includes original liner notes by Ralph Bass.
• Two classic LPs remastered and rereleased on one CD.
• Personnel: Muddy Waters (vocals, guitar); Pat Hare, Buddy Guy (guitar); James Cotton (harmonica); Otis Spann (piano); Clifton James, Francis Clay (drums).
• Liner Note Authors: Bob Schnieders; Ralph Bass; Studs Terkel; Tony Russell.
• Recording information: Chicago, IL (07/1959-08/1959).
• This combines two '60s releases on which Muddy reaches back to his roots. Big Bill Broonzy, a fellow Mississippian, aided Muddy's career during the latter's early days in Chicago. In 1958, a year after Broonzy's passing, Muddy recorded a tribute (released in 1960), where he tackles a batch of Broonzy's songs. Instead of trying to fit himself into Broonzy's style, Muddy makes the tunes his own. The presence of venerable Waters sidemen like James Cotton and Otis Spann makes the translation an easy one.
• In 1963, Muddy entered the studio for an all-acoustic set that harks back to his days as a young Robert Johnson-influenced Delta bluesman. Chess dubbed the album FOLK SINGER in an attempt to cash in on the current folk revival, but it's pure, unadulterated blues. In this spare setting--Buddy Guy on guitar, bass and drums added on a few tunes--Muddy is free to explore the rich lower end of his vocal range, with results that are by turns sensual and ominous. The open arrangements make it possible for Muddy to exercise an extraordinary amount of subtlety in both his singing and guitar playing, and the results are quietly mind-blowing, making for one of Waters' finest albums.

Format: CD (1 Disc); Stereo

Studio/Live: Studio

Country: USA

Release Date: 8 April, 1997

Label: ** What Records ***

Dimensions: 12.5 x 14.2 x 1 centimeters (0.06 kg)