Muddy Waters Folk Singer


First time listening to the above - Chess LPs 45rpm - with a young Buddy Guy also playing. Absolutely fantastic album and wonderful sound quality - reminds me why I love vinyl.
vicks7
This is one of those great natural sounding recordings. It sounds amazing on the Mobile Fidelity CD also.
I not only have the MF lp and cd, I also have it on a 24/96 DAD.
Great album !
Live at Newport is the one that turned the heads of many of the soon to be rich and famous UK rockers.
I have the Quality Records pressing. I wish all my vinyl sounded as good as this.
I have the original Chess Lp as well as the Classic reissue. While I must admit the Classic copy is wonderfully rich and well mastered,the original vinyl copy is the hands down winner!!
the MoFi 33rpm is quite a bit better than the Classic Records 33rpm. i've used the MoFi 33 of Folk Singer as a reference disc for years.

i don't have an original pressing to compare.

i have not directly compared the QRP 45rpm to the MoFi 33rpm yet. the 45 is very very good.
Analog Productions recently released it on SACD. Sounds as good as the MFSL gold CD I have.

Regards,
I got the crappy no-frills Rebook CD version for something like $4.62 on Amazon, and it sounds INCREDIBLE. Would be hard to imagine it getting much better, and I'm curious whether others have compared this version to the pricier MoFi CD versions, etc.
I have
The mofi and the sacd have smoother vocals as
the redbook can sound boomy at times IMO
and lacks the organized soundstage I get from the mofi
That being said I loved and felt the regular
CD was excellent until I got the gold one a couple of years back.
The sacd is very good at about half the price

Regards,
Yes, absolutely - music first and foremost. I am a huge buddy guy fan having seen him play at Glastonbury in the UK in the mid nineties and then again a few years ago in Brazil. Great to hear him at a young age playing with Muddy Waters.
First time I ever heard this album....my friend let me borrow it. I just so happened to have a bag of shrooms on me. So, I indulged myself and played Folk Singer.....One of the most unforgettable musical experiences of my life. I will never forget it. It really is a good album though.....
I just hope we continue to see some great bluesmen in the future but I cannot see the future ever producing a John Lee Hooker or another BB King or a Buddy Guy or going back further Muddy etc. I guess part of it is a generational thing - these guys really came from humble beginnings and had so much to say when they played - maybe I am being unfair on the newer talent coming through.
The social conditions that produced the Blues no longer exist. I am afraid all the real blues recordings have been made. All we can look forward to is better technology to remaster them. I have a map of the state of Mississippi, that shows the birth place of well known bluesmen. I was stunned. There just has to be more bluesmen from the MS delta, than the rest of the country combined. It truly is a music from the delta.
Sorry Rok2id, Bessie Smith was belting out the blues with a big band before the delta players you refer to had picked up guitars. Delta blues is one subset of the blues but just one. There are many more varieties and lots of good blues still being played.
There are a few greats scattered around the south, including Bessie who I think is fron TN. I have three of her boxed sets. Great stuff, but very poor recordings. That is the sad part, the music was great before the technology was. I use the word FEW in a relative sense, because Mississippi is the source and mother lode of the blues. And even within the state of Ms, it is concentrated in the delta. I went to the Blues Museum in Clarksdale, MS and was amazed at the number of musicians from that state. I mean big time people. Blues, Country, soul/R&B, rock&roll, Jazz, Gospel even Classical. Mississppi punches well above it's weight when it comes to music. There are greats all over, but the sheer concentration of the numbers is what sets Mississippi apart.
BTW, I disagree that the delta blues is a subset. It is the original, the source therefore it cannot be a subset. All that it spawned can be called subsets. The Delta blues is just the blues. Texas / louisiana ,Chicago, The Carolinas may be called subsets. I don't list memphis because it is where the Delta starts.
Rok2id, there is no original source for any genre of music. It's evolution not revolution, as Duane Allman once said about another topic.
Actually the roots of the blues originated and evolved during slavery in the old South through the spirtuals. I find much of Delta Blues, which I really love btw, reaches and speaks about pretty much all aspects of the human condition including lust, humor, despair, longing, joy, jeolousy, revenge, hate and hope. Did I leave anything out? I'm sure plenty and the blanks can be filled in with pretty much any adjective describing the human condition which these people endured. The point being it is folk storytelling to music by a people oppressed over a long period of time and a means to let it out without verbally complaining of the conditions which would have surely brought added pain and punishment.
"Big Leggeds woman, keep your dresses down you make a bulldog hug a hound" :) Funny and lustful, you just gotta love it!
oh yes. Those big leg wimens. I have almost as many blues a classical CDs. I was not sure they would be around forever, but the ease of remastering and reissuing CDs makes them likely to be with us forever.
I agree with you, Vicks. I've listened to Folk Singer hundreds of times. One of my favorite blues albums.

FWIW, some of my other blues favorites that are just one man and his instrument...

John Lee Hooker, The Country Blues
Fred McDowell, The First Recordings
Son House, Original Delta Blues
Lightnin Hopkins, Country Blues
Robert Pete Williams, Robert Pete Williams
Big Bill Broonzy, Trouble in Mind

Bryon
Thanks Bryon - I will check these out. Can these all be obtained on vinyl? Any particularly good pressings?
Another blues album I strongly recommend is Alone and Acoustic - Buddy Guy and Junior Wells. The final track of the album is a particular favourite. I only have this on CD.
Vicks - I have Alone and Acoustic and you're right, it's great. I can't tell you whether the albums I mentioned are available on vinyl, since I'm digital only (gasp). :-) Even if you can't find them on vinyl, if you love Folk Singer and Alone and Acoustic, I think you'll really enjoy them.

bc
Any vinyl recording at 45 RPM will sound much better than the 33-1/3 version. The CD version is out of absolute phase so depending on ones system I would suggest switching the phase and listening for the huge improvement for this recording. Sounds excellent on CD also, folks it all starts with the mastering.