Aristocrat Of The Blues 1941-1950 CD

Muddy Waters
Aristocrat Of The Blues 1941-1950 CD

Muddy Waters didn’t single-handedly effect the seismic upheaval in the sound of Chicago Blues as the 1940s gave way to the 50s, but it’s impossible to overstate his importance in its evolution.
It moved from a still largely acoustic to an electric format, and it’s fair to say that, without Muddy’s participation, it might have taken a considerably different direction.
The Aristocrat Of The Blues features all the recordings that he made as a session leader (rather than an accompanist) for Aristocrat Records of Chicago in the two years before the label changed its name to Chess Records.
They provide the foundation on which everything that followed was built – not just for Muddy, but for Chess Records itself – and include many songs that were associated with Muddy throughout his time in the limelight, including I Cant Be Satisfied, I Feel Like Goin’ Home and his spectacular two part version of Rollin' and Tumblin'.
Muddy Waters has been gone for more than 40 years now, but his all pervasive influence on the blues is as strong as it ever was and always will be.
Here is a welcome opportunity to hear him as he sounded at the start of his long and illustrious career, with the masters presented in order of recording and with the addition of three invaluable pre-Aristocrat sides that he later reworked.
There's no shortage of Muddy collections, but this is the first time this period of his career has been compiled as a stand-alone CD.