Muddy Waters: Folk Singer (mono) (LP)

In September 1963, Chess Records tried to get a slice of the growing acoustic recording pie with this acoustic folk-blues album. McKinley Morganfield, better known as Muddy Waters, had been playing in the Chicago blues and jazz scene for decades by then and actually preferred the electric guitar and modern blues interpretations and had already scored a few hits with them in the 1950s, but things had been looking pretty bleak since 1958. The 1964 release became a hit and defines the acoustic blues genre to this day and is highly sought after by audiophiles. The blues quartet consisted of Muddy Waters on vocals and guitar, Buddy Guy on second guitar, Willie Dixon on upright bass and Clifton Jones on drums. The recording was reworked by Kevin Gray from Cohearent Audio and is released here with bonus tracks that were not part of the original release. In terms of sound, it's a cream of the crop and although the musicians don't come into the listening room, you're clearly in the recording studio in Chicago.