Muddy Waters - Fathers and Sons [320](Big Papi) 1989 Blues MCA CHD-92522

This is probably the best of the "senior musician meets and plays with eager young fan"-projects of the sixties and seventies blues revival.

Blues legend Muddy Waters and his piano player Otis Spann, with veteran Sam Lay behind the drum kit, teamed up with three young white musicians to record this 1969 album: Guitarist Michael Bloomfield, bassist Donald 'Duck' Dunn (of Booker T & the Memphis Group), and harpist Paul Butterfield.
And the results are magnificent. 26-year old Paul Butterfield shows off some truly excellent harmonic playing, Dunn is rock-solid and funky, and the combined forces of Bloomfield and Muddy Waters himself produces some terrific guitar playing.
The sound is great, too, and Otis Spann (who is supposedly one of the "Fathers" of the album's title, even though he was only in his late 30s at the time) plays some of the best blues piano you'll ever hear.

This is not actually better than Muddy Waters' recordings with his regular band, of course, but almost all of these songs are quite as good, and that's pretty great praise!
Highlights include the tough, swinging "Blow Wind Blow" and "I'm Ready", the supremely groovy slow blues "Can't Lose What You Ain't Never Had", the catchy "Forty Days And Forty Nights", Eddie Boyd's "Twenty-Four Hours", and the up-tempo rendition of "Sugar Sweet", which really shows off Otis Spann's masterful boogie piano playing.

Then comes four previously unreleased cuts, which aren't rejects by any means, although they didn't make the original double-LP, and six superb live tracks recorded on April 24th 1969 with the same band which had cut the studio tracks during the previous three days.
Muddy Waters' vocals on the slow slide-guitar workout "Long Distance Call" are sublime, and Butterfield's playing on the classic "Baby Please Don't Go" is pure Little Walter.
Out comes the bottleneck again for a grand rendition of "Honey Bee", followed by Willie Dixon's "The Same Thing" and an eight-minute take on "Got My Mojo Working", much to the delight of the crowd.

Not all attempts to "update" a blues artists sound were succesful, but this one is not only a succes, it is an excellent album which genuine adds to the legacy of Muddy Waters. And the live portion is among the best live Muddy on record - right up there with "Mojo - The Live Collection" and "Muddy Waters At Newport 1960".
Highly recommended.