Let’s face it, the music on this CD had to be good, otherwise there’s not too much to recommend it.
The back of the insert is badly printed. I can’t read some of the information, while other parts of it are legible twice. There is no indication who performs which track in this 1971 concert apart from for instance “Hoochie Coochie Man” immediately following “Introduction For Muddy Waters”. This means however that without listening to the CD you wouldn’t know that Muddy is back for the encore. And there is nearly five minutes of Joe Turner interviewing Big Mama Thornton, interesting enough the first time you hear it, but being track 4 every time you want to hear the music you either have to skip it or listen to it again – a problem that would have been eased by putting it at the end or beginning of the CD.
So it comes as a great relief to report that the music quite often hits the spot.
In 1971 Muddy’s career was in something of a slump, years after the glory days at Chess and years before his Johnny Winter-assisted Indian summer. But if it wasn’t happening in the studio, he shows here that he could still cut it live. There’s also some nice harp (from George ‘Harmonica’ Smith, I presume – nobody is credited).
Big Mama Thornton is her usual feisty self through “Ball And Chain” and “Hound Dog” (or “Houn Dawg” as it calls it here). With both Thornton and Joe Turner the suspicion is that the vocal would be pretty much the same whoever was accompanying them, which is probably just as well.
In addition to the above you will hear from George ‘Harmonica’ Smith (in his own right), J. B. Hutto and Bee Houston. All the soloists are backed by Thornton’s band, the Hound Dogs, who may be about as inspired as their name but at least they don’t get in the way of the stars too much.
If you like Waters, Thornton and Turner you might consider buying this CD. While there are better examples of the work of each of them available, you probably wouldn’t regret the purchase.
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