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Muddy Waters - The Complete Plantation Recordings (1942)

Track listing:
  1. Country Blues 3:26
  2. Interview #1 4:03
  3. I Be's Troubled 3:05
  4. Interview #2 1:53
  5. Burr Clover Farm Blues 2:56
  6. Interview #3 1:12
  7. Ramblin' Kid Blues 1:10
  8. Ramblin' Kid Blues 3:18
  9. Rosalie 3:05
  10. Joe Turner 2:49
  11. Pearlie May Blues 3:27
  12. Take a Walk With Me 3:06
  13. Burr Clover Blues 3:15
  14. Interview #4 0:36
  15. I Be Bound to Write You [First Version] 3:28
  16. I Be Bound to Write You [Second Version] 2:54
  17. You're Gonna Miss Me 3:26
  18. You Got to Take Sick and Die Some of These 2:09
  19. Why Don't You Live So God Can Use You? 2:09
  20. Country Blues 3:37
  21. You're Gonna Miss Me 3:44
  22. 32-20 Blues 2:58

Notes

At long last, Muddy's historic 1941-1942 Library of Congress field recordings are all collected in one place, with the best fidelity that's been heard thus far. Waters performs solo pieces (you can hear his slide rattling against the fretboard in spots) and band pieces with the Son Sims Four, "Rosalie" being a virtual blueprint for his later Chicago style. Of particular note are the inclusion of several interview segments with Muddy from that embryonic period and a photo of Muddy playing on the porch of his cabin, dressed up and looking sharper than any Mississippi sharecropper on Stovall's plantation you could possibly imagine. This much more than just an important historical document; this is some really fine music imbued with a sense of place, time and loads of ambience.