The first eight tracks of this 20-track collection date from 1956: "All Aboard," and featuring both
James Cotton and
Little Walter on twin harmonicas, "Forty Days and Forty Nights," "Just to Be With You," "Don't Go No Farther," "Diamonds at Your Feet," "I Love the Life I Live," "Rock Me," and the studio version of "I Got My Mojo Working." By now,
Waters was a rhythm & blues star, as far removed from the Clarksdale plantation he grew up on as you could get. He also had developed the modern-day blues band lineup and by this time had his running like a well-oiled machine.
Little Walter (by now a star in his own right) was still on call for studio dates and if not, Walter Horton,
Otis Spann, and
Jimmy Rogers were still in the lineup. By 1958's "She's Nineteen Years Old,"
Muddy had built up his second great band with
James Cotton,
Pat Hare, and
Luther Tucker on guitars and
Francis Clay on drums, the unit he would take to Newport in 1960. It's this unit that contributes so mightily to "Walkin' Thru the Park," "She's Into Something," and
Big Bill Broonzy's "I Feel So Good." Two of
Muddy's most influential tracks, "You Shook Me" and "You Need Love" (the blueprint for Led Zepplin's "Whole Lotta Love"), curiously feature
Earl Hooker on slide guitar, along with
A.C. Reed and
John "Big Moose" Walker, the core of the Age-Profile label's house band. A pair of tracks from his now-celebrated
Folk Singer album with
Buddy Guy and
Willie Dixon ("My Home Is in the Delta" and "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl") offset the collection's final selections,
Willie Dixon's "The Same Thing" and
Muddy's classic "You Can't Lose What You Ain't Never Had," a perfect closer for this essential collection. ~ Cub Koda