Muddy Waters - Live (1971, 76 & 79)

Following on from my previous post...Here are some other very good rare live performances from Muddy Waters...who epitomises The Blues ! You can never tire from his uniqueness, talent and influence !

Muddy Waters - Mojo - The Live Collection (1971&76) :
This is a compilation of other rare MW live perfomancces that have appeared on earlier independent labels...From my searches Tracks 1 to 7 are the gathering of all Muddy's vocal/guitar tracks from a gig in Switzerland April 1976 that have appeared on Jazz Helvetica CD 02 (?)

Tracks 8, 9, 10, 12 recorded at Washington University, 1971
Tracks 11, 13, 14 recorded at Oregon University, 1971
Issued under license from Red Lightnin' Ltd and courtesy of Top Cat Records...and are from a selection on the album 'Muddy Waters - The Lost Tapes' released on Blind Pig Records.
The personnel is given in my scans provided.

Muddy Waters - Windy City Blues (Live 1979) :
This is just a copy of an obscure album from Charly Records (art gathered from the net) and licensed to a small cut-price label where I stumbled across it...(and have added the cover for what its worth...with no details)...but a fine recording. Here is some info from a MW discography :
Live recording, possibly at Harry Hope’s Club, Cary, Illinois, Thur. to Sat. 22to 24 March 1979 or Fri. to Sun. 26 to 28 Oct 1979.
Muddy Waters vcl, gtr; Luther ‘Guitar Jr.’ Johnson gtr, vcl; Bob Margolin gtr;Jerry Portnoy hca; Joe ‘Pinetop’ Perkins pno, vcl; Calvin Jones bass; Willie Smith drums...
It's a gem ! - Gus
Both here as flac & mp3@320

Muddy Waters - Hoochie Coochie Man (Live 1964)

It's been a while since we've had a Muddy Waters album here...I didn't want to post the obvious classics as I'm sure we all have those in our collections (or should !).
Here is a very good live recording that is perfect for listening in the late hours with a beer (or...Champagne & Reefer...?) in hand !
...And is slightly more obscure than his Chess live sets. It's a favourite of mine from the greatest Bluesman of them all (along with Robert Johnson, Howlin' Wolf and B B King...of course !)
The band consists of Muddy - Guitar and vocals, Otis Spann - Piano, George Smith - Harmonica, Sammy Lawhorn - Guitar, Luther Johnson - Bass and Francis Clay - Drums...Or so we are told from the lack of proper detail and info re where these recordings originate from. But don't let this put you off...It's a unique chilled Muddy with plenty of his slide-guitar and wonderful voice.

Robert Gordon in his book 'Can't Be Satisfied - The Life And Times Of Muddy Waters' (2002) has this to say about this recording : 
'...Hoochie Coochie Man (Laserlight) is notable both for its raucous slide guitar and its interesting set list (including 'Rosalie', an obscure track from the Library of Congress recordings). Recorded in 1964, the CD captures Muddy at his mightiest; during 'Tiger In Your Tank', when the guitar is about to overcome the vocals (as it rightly should, growling), the soundman abruptly adjusts it - it pains me every time. Nonetheless , among Muddy's live discs, this one's the one.'   

Note : on this CD 'Tiger In Your Tank' is wrongly titled as 'Sittin' And Thinkin' (track 4) amongst other errors ...I do believe that this label was a cheap release-anything-that-might-sell company...but this is a diamond for MW fans...his performances and voice are superb ! - Here as flac & mp3 with complete scans - Enjoy Gus

Jimmy Dawkins - Fast Fingers 1969

"James Henry "Jimmy" Dawkins (October 24, 1936 – April 10, 2013) was an American Chicago blues and electric blues guitarist and singer. He was generally considered a part of the "West Side Sound" of Chicago blues. He was born in Tchula, Mississippi in 1936. He moved to Chicago in 1955. He worked in a box factory, and started to play local blues clubs, gaining a reputation as a session musician.

In 1969, thanks to the efforts of his friend Magic Sam, he released his first album Fast Fingers on Delmark Records, winning the "Grand Prix du Disque" from the Hot Club de France. In 1971, Delmark released his second album All For Business with singer, Andrew Odom, and the guitarist, Otis Rush. Dawkins also toured in the late 1970s backed up by James Solberg (of Luther Allison and The Nighthawks fame) on guitar and Jon Preizler (The Lamont Cranston Band, The Drifters), a Seattle based Hammond B-3 player known for his soulful jazz influenced style. Other musicians that toured with Jimmy Dawkins in the late 1970s were Jimi Schutte (drummer), Sylvester Boines (bass), Rich Kirch and Billy Flynn (guitars). With this combination of musicians Dawkins also toured Europe.

Dawkins began to tour in Europe and Japan and recorded more albums in the United States and Europe. Dawkins also contributed a column to the blues magazine Living Blues. In the 1980s he released few recordings, but began his own record label, Leric Records, and was more interested in promoting other artists, including Taildragger, Queen Sylvia Embry, Little Johnny Christian and Nora Jean Wallace.

Dawkins died of undisclosed causes on April 10, 2013, aged 76." wiki

Muddy Waters - With Little Walter: 1950-1952

When most people think about the legacy of Muddy Waters, the first songs that come to mind are probably those macho Willie Dixon-produced shouts from the mid-1950s: Hoochie Coochie Man, Mannish Boy, I'm Ready, I Just Want to Make Love to You, Got My Mojo Working, etc.   But as far as I am concerned, the pinnacle of Muddy Waters' recorded output unquestionably lies here, in the records that he made with Little Walter in the early 50s before Willie Dixon entered the picture.  This is Muddy Waters playing his own music his own way in a manner that helped mold the evolution of Chicago and Mississippi blues in the 1950s and beyond.   It just doesn't get any better than this.  If I could only own one blues collection, I would choose this one.   I can't begin to describe here how much satisfaction and inspiration these recordings have given me over so many years.

I took these recordings from two sources:  The first 22 tracks come from the 2-CD set, The Anniversary Collection, released on Chess (MCA) in 2000.  The final 3 tracks come from the Hip-O-Select collection "Hoochie Coochie Man."  Together they present all of Muddy Water's recordings from June, 1950 to the end of1952.   The first session here marks the time when Leonard Chess finally honored Muddy's wish to allow him to record with Little Walter, and the result marked a milestone in recorded blues history.  (Parkway records had already recorded the two together in 1951, but Muddy Waters was essentially confined to guitar accompaniments for contractual reasons.)  Little Walter is co-featured on almost all of these tracks, although many believe that it is actually a teenage Junior Wells who takes care of the mean harp work on the last four tracks.  Jimmy Rogers is also present on many songs in this collection.

There are no weak tracks here (IMO), and the number of masterpieces is mind boggling:  Long Distance Call, Honey Bee, Louisiana Blues, She Moves Me, Still a Fool, Too Young to Know, Standing Around Crying, Iodine in My Coffee to name a handful.   I will stop here at the risk of sounding too fanatical.  When it comes to Muddy Waters, I am indeed a fanatic, and these recordings are IT for me.     

Eddie King & Mae Bee Mae - The Blues Has Got Me

Eddie King was a solid West Side Chicago blues singer and guitarist who left us in 2012.  He worked as a sideman for many prominent artists, most notably as Koko Taylor's lead guitarist for a number of years.   Following a few scattered 45s in the 60s and 70s, Eddie King only released two albums under his own leadership, this one (The Blues Has Got Me) in 1987 and Another Cow's Dead in 1997,
Both of Eddie King's albums are highly worthwhile, and Another Cow's Dead has probably received the most attention of the two.  But is is this album, The Blues Has Got Me, that has a very special place in my heart and listening rotation.   What puts this album over the top for me are the vocal contributions of Eddie King's sister, Mae Bee Mae.

I have no idea why Mae Bee Mae has not recorded very much.  If fact, I don't know any other recorded document of her.  I also do not know if she is still alive or active.   There is a lot of information about Eddie King and Mae Bee Mae up until this album was recorded in the superb detailed liner notes for this album by Robert Pruter that Black Magic has generously supplied in full online.  Check it out:  Liner Notes.

Mae Bee Mae's vocals on certain tracks like (especially) He'll Drain On You and Able Mae Bee have stuck in my head and soul since the first time I heard them.  I still play them often.  Maybe you will too.