Vintage 1970s Muddy Waters To Be Released
Vintage 1970s Muddy Waters To Be Released
July 23, 2010
Rev. Keith A. Gordon
About.com
Through the years, Britian's BGO Records ("Beat Goes On") has received a well-earned reputation for its extensive series of reissue CDs, with many releases featuring two full-length albums on a single disc. The hard-working BGO crew often rescues albums that have been abandoned by American labels, whose bean counters have deemed these titles as lacking in "commercial potential." BGO reissues them anyway to an appreciative, music-loving audience, and the label's catalog is flowing over with long-neglected classic rock, blues, jazz, and soul albums.
On September 6, 2010 BGO Records will be reissuing a pair of vintage 1970s Muddy Waters albums that have been out-of-print in American for better than a decade and a half. The single reasonably-priced disc will include both the 1970 Waters' compilation album They Call Me Muddy Waters and the hard-to-find, critically-acclaimed 1971 Live At Mr. Kelly's album. The dozen songs featured on They Call Me Muddy Waters were recorded by the Chicago blues legend between 1951 and 1967, the set including such live wire performances as "Crawling King Snake," "County Jail," and the title track.
Live At Mr. Kelly's is the reason why you'll want this too cool for school reissue; recorded by Waters at a Chicago club over a couple of nights in June 1971, this BGO reissue reprises the original ten-song Chess Records release. Waters is leading one of the best bands of his considerable career, featuring harp player James Cotton and pianist Pinetop Perkins, along with guitarists Sammy Lawhorn and James "Pee Wee" Madison, bassist Calvin "Fuzz" Jones, and drummer Willie "Big Eyes" Smith. Waters rages through originals like "Strange Woman" and "Country Boy" as well as inspired covers of Sonny Boy Williamson ("Nine Below Zero"), T-Bone Walker ("Stormy Monday"), and John Lee Hooker ("Boom Boom").
BGO Records also has a number of other Muddy Waters reissues; of particular interest is their "two-for" of Muddy Waters Sings Big Bill, a 1960 tribute album of Waters covering Big Bill Broonzy songs, paired with Waters' acoustic 1964 Folk Singer album. Both titles can be hard to track down for collectors, and BGO has them both on a single disc. The Rev says "check 'em out!"
