****RINGER OF THE WEEK****
Oh, Yeah! Everything is going to be all right this mornin’! If you have ANY desire to hear the blues the way they’re supposed to be played, then sit right down and either watch or listen to this ESSENTIAL dvd/cd of Muddy Waters holding court with his working band in a jam packed and smoky nightclub in Chicago. Where else? Waters is in prime vocal form, while he and the band hold the crowd spellbound, as if his mojo was really working on tunes like “Country Boy.” Half way through “Baby Please Don’t Go,” Mick Jagger saunters on stage to share the vocals and eventually Keith Richards and Ron Wood join the foray, plug in and stay on for some of the most enjoyable blues/rock you’ll ever want to savor.
Buddy Guy, ‘Fro’d to the max, cannonballs into the crowd and rips through “Mannish Boy” in a way that gives grins of admiration from Richards, while Junior Wells loans his gritty voice to “One Eyed Woman” and a few more blues that snap like a dog at The Wiener’s Circle. By the time Left Dizz brings up his axe to pick and grin on an instrumental take of “Baby Please Don’t Go,” you’ll probably have a sore throat from singing and wailing along with these guys. The cd excludes a few of the tunes, which just makes the audio a bit tighter and more compact. Don’t miss this one, or you’ll REALLY be singing the blues!