First Recording Sessions 1941-1946

Performer: Muddy Waters
Artist: Baby Face LeRoy; Little Walter
Distributor: Allegro Corporation (Dist

Notes: Personnel includes: Muddy Waters, Percy Thomas (vocals, guitar); Baby Face Leroy Foster (vocals, drums); Charles Berry (guitar); Louis Ford (mandolin); Little Walter (harmonica); Sunnyland Slim, James Clark (piano); Ransom Knowling (bass); Judge Riley (drums). Recorded at Stovall's Plantation, Mississippi, Clarksdale, Mississippi and Chicago Illinois between 1941 & 1950. Includes liner notes by Jake Gittes. This disc is essential for even casual fans of the legendary bluesman Muddy Waters, because unlike any other recordings in his long and prolific career, the cuts featured here show the roots of his idiosyncratic style of electrified Chicago blues. More to the point, the first 13 tracks, recorded in Mississippi in 1941 and 1942, are neither electric nor Chicago-style full-band blues, but straight-up acoustic country blues in the Delta style. The self-explanatory "Country Blues" is Waters' first recording, and in it, one can already hear his trademark lyrical slide guitar, albeit in nascent form. Blues like "Why Don't You Live So God Can Use You" and "You Got to Take Sick and Die Some of These Days" are as painful and mysterious as their titles. The remaining 11 tracks, which were recorded in Chicago in the mid-'40s and include an early "Rollin' and Tumblin'," show Waters developing his electrified full-band style.

Originally a Delta bluesman in the vein of Son House, Muddy Waters moved north in the 1940s and became the leader of the first--and greatest--electric Chicago blues band. Waters' abrasive guitar, impassioned singing, and commanding stage presence inspired generations of disciples, and hits like "Hoochie Coochie Man" and "I've Got My Mojo Workin'" are now indisputable classics.

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