I recently found a CD entitled Muddy Waters and Friends in a used CD bin. Being a fan of Muddy I picked it up. I've often found that this sort of CD is a bad copy of something the artist didn't release because it wasn't up to snuff. I figured that for $5.00 Canadian it was worth the gamble.

What a surprise. It turns out that it was recorded in 1967 in Montreal, the night after Muddy's band played live. Someone at the show suggested a porch party at the rooming house that the band was staying in. This was recorded on a tape recorder, so the sound quality isn't great,(not terrible though) but it captures Muddy and his band sitting around playing acoustic guitars in a single take. Keyboard player Otis Spann plays GUITAR and sings, There is some nice harp by John Buford. I think that this is about as close as I will ever hear to what it must have been like when people like Charlie Patton, Son House, Robert Johnson etc. got together and played some songs.

I have a lot of Muddy's studio stuff, which is primarily electric with a full band, but I really, really enjoy this acoustic CD.

Steve Latimer (from his sisters Computer)