Muddy Waters

All Night Long Live!

(Varese Sarabande)

by Eric Steiner

I have a pretty complete collection of Muddy Waters music, but I was very pleased to find a 16-cut live set on the Varese Vintage imprint from the Varese Sarabande label.  Ever since I first saw Muddy Waters live in the 1970s, I’ve always appreciated post-war Chicago blues from artists like Koko Taylor, Elmore James, Lonnie Brooks, Willie Dixon and Muddy Waters.

 All Night Long Live! features Muddy Waters at three critical points in his career.  There are five cuts from May of 1964, including “Baby Please Don’t Go” and “Tiger in Your Tank” with Otis Spann on piano, and the engine room of Willie “Big Eyes” Smith on drums and Ransom Knowling on bass.  Three years later, Spann’s still on the keyboard, but the band features Luther Johnson on bass, Pee Wee Madison on guitar, and George Smith on harp.  On drums, it was either S.P. Leary or Francis Clay, and this seven-song snapshot includes “I Feel Like Going Home” and a great version of “Long Distance Call.”

The final four songs feature the Legendary Blues Band behind Muddy in the late ‘70s with Pinetop Perkins on keys, Jerry Portnoy on harp, “Steady Rollin” Bob Margolin and Luther “Guitar Junior” Johnson on guitars, and Calvin “Fuzz” Jones and Willie “Big Eyes” Smith on bass and drums. 

Bill Dahl’s excellent liner notes recap Muddy’s life from his childhood on the Stovall Plantation in the Delta to his ascendancy to Chicago blues royalty.  I hope that this new CD helps new blues fans rediscover Muddy Waters’ work that spanned five decades before his death in 1983 at age 70. I can’t think of a better introduction to Muddy Waters’ legend and legacy (other than the reissued Muddy Mississippi Waters Live on Sony Classics) than this new compilation on Varese Vintage . 

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