Muddy Waters brought a
Son House-like Delta country blues style north with him from Mississippi to Chicago in 1943, intent on making a living from music. Switching from acoustic to electric guitar in order to be better heard in the Chicago clubs and bars,
Waters gradually assembled one of the greatest ongoing bands in blues history, and in the process,
Waters and his band assembled the very template for classic Chicago blues. This smooth-flowing archival set assembles live tracks from shows in 1964 and 1966, when
Waters' pianist was the great
Otis Spann, and adds in four tracks from a late-'70s show when
Waters' band included pianist
Pinetop Perkins and drummer
Willie "Big Eyes" Smith. ~ Steve Leggett