add 0697 Muddy Waters & Friends

Eleven songs cut by Muddy at an informal session in a Montreal hotel room on Oct. 18. 1967, recorded by Michael Nerenberg. The tape is sort of the companion to the Folksinger album that he'd cut a few years earlier -- Muddy is joined on acoustic guitar and vocals by Otis Spann, Sam Lawhorn, John "Mojo" Buford, and Luther Johnson. The sound is rough, and there's a certain amount of talk and ambient noise, especially on "Little Anna Mae." Other songs include "My Home Is In the Delta," "Take a Little Walk," "Crazy About You Baby," and "Mean Disposition," all done with Muddy in good form -- this was when he was in his fifties, and before the car accident and subsequent health problems that slowed him down, and given the fact that Chess didn't record Muddy for an official live album until a few years after this, Muddy Waters & Friends partly fills a gap in his history. Still, this isn't a definitive recording, because Muddy and company were winging the sound, and had no inkling that what they were taping would ever be heard publicly.

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