Review: Muddy Waters's 'Muddy, Brass & Blues' (Chess Acoustic Sounds Edition)

With his third proper album, Muddy Waters shifted into very different territory, which was signaled to anyone who bothered to look at the record's title. Waters fattened his usual arrangement with a beefy horn section for Muddy, Brass & Blues. The prominent brass and woodwinds, plus the way producers George Barge and Ralph Bass pumped Willie Smith's drums and Calvin James's electric bass up in the mix, give the record a soul flavor, though the songs stick close to the blues formula. 

Waters adjusted his style subtly for the new-fangled arrangements. His singing is unusually smooth throughout the record, even edging close to a croon on "Trouble in Mind" and a repetitious version of the standard "Corine, Corina". Consequently, Muddy, Brass & Blues feels a bit like the man's deliberate attempt to reach out to potential fans too faint of heart to handle him in the raw. The results are peppy and pleasing, if lacking the sweat and grit a lot of longtime listeners expect when pouring a Waters platter onto the turntable. Still, it's good to hear a blues artist stretch themself beyond the limitations of the genre, and Waters manages to do it without losing his cool on Muddy, Brass & Blues.

For its Chess Acoustic Sounds edition of Muddy's third LP, Chess went with the stereo mix. Although the rhythm section is mostly pushed into the right channel throughout the record, the bass is so strong that it still sounds balanced. This is a loud record, though opening cut "Corine, Cornia" seems a tad quieter than the rest of the tracks for some reason. The vinyl is quiet too, meaning no unwanted noise, and there's no distortion to speak of. All in all, a very tidy presentation.