Muddy Waters - The Johnny Winter Sessions 1976-1981 (2009)

Muddy Waters left Chess only when the label folded upon its sale in the mid-'70s, but by that point he was in need of the kind of career revival that only comes with a new label and new set of collaborators. That's precisely what Muddy received in 1976, when he signed with Blue Sky Records and teamed up with the hotshot blues-rock guitarist Johnny Winter, who produced Waters' acclaimed 1977 comeback, Hard Again, and its sequels, 1978's I'm Ready and 1981's King Bee, along with supporting Muddy for the 1979 concert set Muddy "Mississippi" Waters Live. All four albums are cherry-picked for Raven's 2009 compilation The Johnny Winter Sessions 1976-1981, which also adds a cut from the 2003 deluxe edition of Live and Muddy's duet "Walking Thru the Park" from Winter's 1977 album, Nothin' But the Blues. Although Hard Again is indisputably the best album of the batch, vibrating with Muddy's renewed vigor, the other records maintained a fairly consistent high level of quality, with many of the best moments featured here among these 19 tracks. Winter placed Waters in a setting that recalled the loose, gritty intimacy of Chess but crackled with the electric energy and dirty rhythms of his disciples, something that revitalized Muddy and still gives these recordings a kick that resonates decades later. ~Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine