Search - Muddy Waters :: The Real Folk Blues

Great music, a somewhat obsolete CD

Docendo Discimus | Vita scholae | 08/15/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I don't think this one is even in print anymore, actually..."The Real Folk Blues" has long since been supplanted by much more comprehensive compilations, and this CD reissue is now available paired with "More Real Folk Blues" on a twofer disc from MCA.



The dozen songs on "The Real Folk Blues" weren't recorded especially for this album, but merely compiled from various sessions, and although some of this material is early acoustic stuff, tough electric numbers like "Mannish Boy" and "Walking Through The Park" are not excactly folkish.

But there's no arguing with the quality of this music. A mixed bag of Chess sides recorde between 1949 and 1954, "The Real Folk Blues" rounds up some of Muddy's first commercial recordings with just bassist Ernest "Big" Crawford for company, as well as a handful of terrific mid-50s electric sides including the aforementioned "Mannish Boy" and "Walking Through The Park", the hit singles "Forty Days And Forty Nights" and "You Can't Lose What You Ain't Never Had", and the classic "Just To Be With You" (you know, the one that starts with the line "On a ship that's made of paper...").



Willie Dixon's "The Same Thing" is another highlight, as are Muddy's sparse early renditions of "Walking Blues" and "Rollin' And Tumblin'", and the wonderful "Gypsy Woman" with Sunnyland Slim on the piano. The rare "Canary Bird", another early waxing, pops up as well.



This is great music, but it's a little hard to see the need for this particular compilation, which omits many more of Muddy's best and most popular songs than it includes, yet only features one genuine rarity.

If you're more or less new to Muddy Waters, go for the excellent "The Anthology 1947-1972" from MCA/Chess for starters - and of course the wonderful "Muddy Waters At Newport" album. "The Real Folk Blues" is a great collection of songs, but it won't satisfy the listener who wants a comprehensive Muddy collection, and the diehard fan looking for rarities won't find too many of those here either. It would make a nice sampler, though."