From Amazon.com
"I know for a fact that there would not be rock & roll in America ... without Muddy Waters." Truer words are seldom spoken--but it's blues musicians who turn out to pay tribute to the Master on this album, whether they're old-timers like Buddy Guy and Koko Taylor, or relative newcomers like Mem Shannon or Waters's own son, Bill Morganfield. Generally speaking, tribute albums are destined to fall short, because no matter how good a musician is, he's not going to play the song exactly like the original, nor should he try to. But as far as honoring the blues giant,
A Tribute to Muddy Waters lives up to its name. Keb' Mo's take on "I Can't Be Satisfied" comes awfully close to Waters's, while Guy's "She's Nineteen Years Old" and Taylor's "Long Distance Call" are just as good as one would expect from these two Chicago greats. Shannon adapts "Gypsy Woman" to his own New Orleans style, and the late Robert Lockwood Jr. provides a laid-back, easy version of "Mean Red Spider." An important highlight is Morganfield's "Hoochie Coochie Man"; at times, the son of Muddy Waters sounds so much like his father, it's eerie. Overall it's a fitting honorarium to a man without whom the blues as we hear it today would not exist. --
Genevieve Williams
