Customer Reviews

The Complete Plantation Recordings

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When Muddy Waters made the first recordings here, he was 26 or 27 and had not been playing regularly. He didnt own a guitar and had to borrow Alan Lomax's Martin. You see here your basic Delta and Mississippi blues in full blossom, by a man who was a great player if he could sound like this when he wasn't in practice. People look at Mississippi blues with a distorted mind thinking of it only through the stream of Robert Johnson, when the music and the tradition was much broader.

In the interviews on this recording you can see how lame and ignorant at times the folklorists were, both white and black, Lomax and Work. But you also see a testament to Son House who taught Robert Johnson, Muddy, and a whole layer of bluesmen and who was such a great artist even in his revival 1960s that Muddy would make his band members keep quiet and play close attention when House performed with them at Newport and elsewhere.

However, you also see his roots beyond this. We get to hear a good string band performance with Muddy Playing with fiddler Son Sims and a mandolin player in a blues fiddle band that was typical of what was going on at the time. Muddy explains his decision to start playing music was inspired by Sims and the string band with Sims and the mandolin player was the band he performed with when he got work. Neither Waters nor the liner notes let you know that Waters also played mandolin, and that when Muddy was a teenager in the 1930s, his favorite blues group was the fiddle band The Mississippi Sheiks. Years later, Muddy would explain he walked all day just to hear the Sheiks.

Despite all this history, this is some good blues music to listen to,. More relaxed,and less intense, and of course less masterful than the Chess masterpieces Muddy began putting out in Chicago in the 1940s, but this is still a CD I put on my player with it set to keep replaying it because I want to hear it.

Before he became the phenomenon known as Muddy Waters, McKinley Morganfield was a sharecropper at Stovall's Plantation in Clarksdale, Mississippi who worked the soil for a living and played the blues to escape the rigors of his everday life. The Complete Plantation recordings brings us the rawest Muddy Waters yet, documented by Library of Congress folklorist Alan Lomax from 1941-42.

Alot of the immediate appeal of the collection comes from hearing early versions of songs he would later record for the Chess brothers in Chicago. "I Can't be Satisfied" is here in its scorching embryonic state as "I Be's Troubled" as are two takes of "Country Blues" the haunting predecessor to "I Feel Like Going Home." Lomax asks Waters about his inspirations and compositional style in four interview tracks which tend to add more atmosphere than insight. The real gems here are five tracks of the Son Simms Four, a string band in which Waters played guitar (with Henry "Son" Simms on vocal and violin, Percy Thomas on Guitar and Louis Ford on Mandolin). Not only are they documents of Waters in an improvisational collaboration with other artists, and rare examples of authentic black string music, a frequently overlooked area of southern folklore, they are some great dance blues tunes. "Joe Turner," particularly, makes the dance origins of the blues readily apparent.

Afficionados of Muddy Waters' know that his earlier his work, the more intense and raw the performance, Waters having unforntunately fallen into an overproduced 12-bar rut further into his career. While these performances are indisputably intense, feeling closer to the Mississippi Delta than their Chicago counterparts, they lack Waters' distinctive sound that was evident in his early Chess work; a sound that evolved from the tensions between his country roots and big city surroundings. It was that inimitable style which catapulted Waters onto blues' Mount Olympus, and which makes this collection slightly less essential than The Best of Muddy Waters (CHD-31268)or the other compilations of his early work on the Chess label. That said, once introduced to Waters' Chicago classics, "The Plantation Recordings" become required listening for anyone wanting know the infrastructure on which one of the most towering shadows in blues is built.

These are the recordings that launched the legend. Traces of Robert Johnson and Big Bill Broonzy are all over these recordings. Features Muddy solo, and with his early juke-joint band, The Son Simms Four. Other than the music (essential to any Muddy fan,) another interesting aspect of these recording are the interview pieces conducted by Library of Congress archivist Alan Lomax. Muddy comes off as most shy and modest. He had no idea of the impact he would make just 6 years later. Very intriguing. Muddy's elecric 50's work influenced the likes of Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, thereby creating rock and roll. Muddy is the father of all instruments electric. Ask Jimi Hendrix. Muddy was, and to me, still is the man.

THis is the beginning of a colossal history: the history of McKinley Morganfield, aka Muddy Waters, born April 4,1915,in Rolling Fork (Sharkey Co),MS.Born on Kroger Plantation,he went to Clarksdale,MS,in 1918,after his mother's death,and lived with his grandmother.He taught playing harp at 9, and guitar around 1932.Nine years later,he waxed his first tunes,and the legend could begin.One of the greatest musicians of the century was born.
Of course, this cd is essential.Even if there are some imperfections,even if the violin of Henry Sims on four tracks isn't very good.Muddy Waters' music is already here,with strong influences from Son House,Charley Patton,Willie Brown,Robert Johnson and even Blind Lemon Jefferson."Country blues" and "I be's troubled" are masterful solo pieces,recorded at Stovall's Plantation,August 1941."I be bound to write to you" will later be named "I can't be satisfied",and it features great slide playing."You got to take sick and die..." shows Muddy imitating (with great skill) the outstanding Blind Willie Johnson;you know,the guy who recorded "dark was the night,cold was the ground",one of the most extraordinary pieces in the history of american black music."Why don't you live..." is the same ."mean red spider" features a pianist that sounds like Sunnyland Slim."I'm gonna cut your head" is more in Big Maceo's mood,because of James Clark's piano playing;so are "atomic bomb blues" ,"tomorrow will be too late","Jitterbug blues","hard day blues","burryin' ground blues","come to me baby" and "you can't make the grade".It seems funny and strange to find Muddy playing the role of Tampa Red.However,there are great tunes,with great piano support;Muddy loved this kind of piano players,and some years later he will play with the immense Otis Spann (1930-1970),a "son" of Big Maceo.Finally,the terrific,outstanding,amazing,superb "rollin' and tumblin'",recorded in two parts,with Little Walter,harp,and Babyface Leroy Foster,dms and vcl.This tune became one of Muddy's anthems,and was first recorded by an obscure but very talented guy at the end of the twenties,Hambone Willie Newbern;this man recorded a few tracks,and died killed by cops who stroke him to death.You can find the "complete recorded works" of Willie Newbern on Document Records.Muddy's version of "rollin' and tumblin'" is one of the most ferocious things I ever heard;the very young Little Walter (Marion Jacobs,1930-1968),plays harp like mad here.A little bit more than five minutes of the greatest blues playing.If you're addicted to Muddy Waters' music,you have to discover this little known side of his music.

If your idea of what a Muddy Waters tune should sound like is the cut-and-shuffle of "Hoochie Coochie Man" or the hard-hitting "I've Got My Mojo Working", the music on this album may come as a surprise to you. This is strictly acoustic stuff, split between solo performances and recordings with the Son Simms Four string band, and the style (if not the voice) recalls Waters' self-professed mentor, the legendary Eddie "Son" House.

Stil, if you're interested in country blues, this is an important and interesting document, showcasing the great Muddy Waters before he truly found a style of his own. The 1941 recording of "I Be's Troubled" (later redubbed "I Can't Be Satisfied") shows signs of things to come, but most of what is on here owes a huge debt to Son House first and William "Big Bill" Broonzy second. Waters' heavy-handed slide guitar attack is strongly reminiscent of House, whom Waters mentions several times during the four interview snippets spread across the record.

According to legend, listening to himself on acetate for the first time made Muddy Waters believe in himself and his abilities as a recording artist ("I didn't know I sang like that!"), and he eventually made it north to Chicago where his re-working of "I Be's Troubled" became a major local hit in 1948).

Among the highlights on this album are the House-esque "Country Blues", "I Be's Troubled", and "Rosalie", which is a virtual blueprint for Waters' later approach. Also listen to "You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone" and the Charley Patton-like "You Got To Take Sick And Die Some Of These Days".

Again, this is NOT the kind of hard-rocking blues and deep grooves that made Muddy Waters the king of Chicago blues in the 50s (well, alongside Howlin' Wolf), but if you are interested in the developement of one of the most important post-war blues musicians, it is well worth picking up. And the music is good, too!

This is where the legend of the one and only, tremendous Muddy Waters starts. Few people have ever impacted any artform as much as Muddy has American music. Though he is accompanied on some songs, Muddy is also solo on many and performs some future classics w/ just an acoustic and his powerful voice. When Muddy heard the playback after "Country Blues" he knew that he had what it took to be a blues professional... possibly the greatest that there ever was. If you've never heard Muddy play acoustic, you are in for a shock; I believe my jaw dropped to the floor when I heard the amazing, full-bodied, vibrant sound that he got out of just a guitar and his voice on songs such as the first cut and "I Be's Troubled" (later recorded as "I Can't Be Satisfied." This is indispensable and essential listening, not just some study in the roots of American music.

Most Blues fans have heard a lot of chicago blues. Most fans have a lot of Muddy Waters chicago blues. But not alot of Muddy Waters fans would have heard Muddy sing the delta blues. This CD is very intersting because it shows Muddy playing the first blues he ever heard, The Delta Blues. Much like the sounds of Son House, Robert Johnson and Skip JAmes this cd is all acoustic blues. It is great to be able to hear a very young Muddy sing delta blues because once he went to Chicago he abandoned the delta sound and went electric. Muddy does several Robert Johnson songs on this cd quite well, and there are some interesting interviews with Muddy explaining what life was like in the delta and why he made songs out of his experiences. For those who like the old delta blues this cd is a must have, on no other cd do we hear Muddy singing blues like these.

Long before Muddy Waters had established himself as the sound of Chicago Blues, he was playing the Blues in the Mississippi Delta. Thanks to the field work of Alan Lomax, who was recording musicians of every sort for the Library of Congress, we can hear the roots of Muddy Waters' music. If you're looking for a quality sound from a recording, this isn't the disk for you. If you're like me, a person who loves the Blues and all it's history, you're going to find this a most valuable recording. Not only does Muddy Waters play and sing his folk rooted Blues songs, but he's interviewed by Mr. Lomax and John Work. This recording is oral history at its best. After hearing Muddy Waters Chicago Blues sound for many years, I found this to be a necessary and enjoyable addition to my Muddy Waters library of recordings.

absolutely love this cd of recordings.Its Muddy raw and young.I recommend this to anyone that likes Mississippi Delta blues.

This early recording of Muddy Waters exemplifies how much he developed as an artist and later an innovator of blues music. For this is Muddy before he groundbreakingly plugged in an electric guitar and almost single-handedly changed the face of popular music, setting the stage for rock and roll in the process.

Muddy was directly influenced mostly by Robert Johnson and Son House. On these recordings, it's remarkable how much he sounds like Robert Johnson, vocal-wise especially. His voice was higher and a little thinner than that of the deep, gritty Muddy vocal associated with his seminal 50's recordings.

I most enjoyed the tracks that featured only Muddy singing and accompanying himself on guitar--that is where he really shines. The string band of his...er, well let's just say it's a far cry from the classic Muddy band from the 50's with Little Walter and Otis Spann! :-) A lot of times, they're out of tune and not really together, but it's real and from the heart, and those are the more important elements of authentic blues music.

A highly recommended CD for blues lovers, particularly those interested in the development of the genre!