Customer Reviews

Folk Singer

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I picked up this CD after hearing two of its tracks on Muddy Waters' Best 1956 - 1964. It's a wonderful acoustic blues album. You've got the king of the electric blues, his wonderful voice and slide guitar, you've got legendary songwriter/bassist Willie Dixon, AND, as if that weren't enough, a very young Buddy Guy on lead guitar (who I believe to be the best guitarist in the world). All these ingredients make for one great album. Plus there are bonus tracks to fill out the CD (missing Buddy Guy unfortunately), terrific liner notes and photos, and digital remastering. This CD really, really sounds great. I was blown away by the audio quality. It sounds as if the album were recorded last year. If you like Muddy Waters, acoustic blues, or just great music, check out Folk Singer immediately.

Nothing is quite so productive of irony as the collision of art and commerce, and this sterling CD is a perfect example. The year is 1964, and the (white) owners of Chess Records are concerned that Chicago-style electrified blues is being usurped in the marketplace by "folk music"--everything, that is, from the Weavers to the rediscovered Mississippi John Hurt. So they importune the great Muddy Waters to trim his sails to the commerical breeze and cut a "folk" session with an acoustic guitar. Sell out? Nothing of the kind. Muddy, needless to say, came up via the Delta string-band tradition to start with, so unplugging was hardly a stretch for him. And the result was, and is, a stripped-down wonder, with the singer's bottomless, resonant baritone front and center, supported by his own expert fingerpicking, Willie Dixon's upright bass, and an extremely youthful Buddy Guy supplying electric fills. Fantastic, just fantastic, with one of Muddy's all-time greatest performances, "You Can't Lose What You Never Had."

What a great blues album! I just received it in the mail, and this is one of those CD's that exceeds all expectations. First, I was floored by the sound quality - hi-res with beaucoups of air and a realistic soundstage. As I continued through the disc, it became obvious that this CD belongs on a short list of the best blues albums ever made because the performances were incredible! No folk songs here - it's all acoustic blues with Willie Dixon on bass and Buddy Guy on guitar accompanying Muddy. The bonus tracks are all keepers too. This is absolutely essential blues, and music for the ages.

"~Folk Singer is a stunning return to acoustic folk blues for Muddy Waters. The remastering is superb and the picking and rhythmic patterns of a young Buddy Guy is mouth dropping. If you're going to get a Muddy Waters cd, don't waste your time with a greatest hits package, you can't listen to the blues like that, it's more a feeling at a certain point in time, and at the time of this recording, all the artists were on the same page. development and history of American music. This and Newport are pillars in the folk/blues movement of the late 50's and early 60's.

This is not a folk album; it's a blues album. And it's one of the best blues albums anybody ever recorded. I have a lot of Muddy Waters' CDs, and this one makes me stop and listen to how great his voice was, how well he could tell a story, how deeply he could hook you. You get that "back porch blues" feeling, like he's there with you on a hot summer night strummin' and singin' with a couple of friends he brought along.

This album is a must for any Muddy Waters--or blues--lover.

The remastered recording is quite clear and fresh, a great sounding album

Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. Acoustic Muddy, one step removed from the Delta and backed by outstanding musicians. Most notably Buddy Guy on acoustic guitar. Wonderful stuff. Muddy's gut-wrenching vocals run the gamut from sweet-as-honey to scorned and shaken. Make this a must for your collection -- blues or otherwise.

If you are looking for a moment of peace amidst the hustle bustle of modern life, get this CD which features the King of the Blues going back to his roots with some gorgeous accoustic guitar work and timeless songs. Muddy's playing is sparse so that every note matters. His singing is soft and mysterious. This is American music at its best. It is also a wonderful record for guitar players who wish to practice their blues scales to pre-recorded music...

This is indeed one of the 10 greatest albums ever, of any genre, of any time. The influence of this album reverberated throughtout not only the blues world, but through ever style of music. Numerous artists since have called this one of their greatest influences, and to listen to it as a whole (very important) is to know why. I have only heard the original 9 tracks, which represent absolute perfection of completeness. I have not heard the bonus tracks, so I will not comment on them, though I find I am usually dissappointed in the mediocre crap thrown on the extra space of CDs. Nevertheless, any way possible, the original album must be a part of any great collection.

For this kind of music, only humility exists. My only contribution to this thread would be the following: please tell me out there, you listening folks to the culture of music that we love, when will this wisdom enter our places and beyond.......?

Oh, by the way, who will be the fool that gives this album lower than the five star album it always deserves.....? Bless the Waters......

... and had my parents' vinyl copy of this magnificent album sandwiched in the shelves, among many other discs, good, bad and indifferent.

This was one of the good ones.

I imagine this album tells me a little bit about what a late-night back-porch session with Muddy Waters was like. Dixon, James and Guy supply that rarest of commodities, silence. It's like good Italian food: only the finest ingredients, minimally processed and dished up hot. It could be subtitled "The Triumph of Taste Over Virtuosity".