Muddy Waters The Real Folk Blues Import 180g LP

The Real Folk Blues is a 1966 compilation album of Muddy Waters recordings, released on the Chess record label in January 1966. The album was the first release of The Real Folk Blues series and has since been re-released on multiple formats. The album features some of Waters' first recordings. In 2017, the album was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in the category of 'Classics of Blues Recordings – Album'.

Once Chess discovered a white folk-blues audience ripe and ready to hear the real thing, they released a series of albums under the Real Folk Blues banner. This is one of the best entries in the series, a mixed bag of early Chess sides from 1949-1954, some of it hearkening back to Muddy's first recordings for Aristocrat with only Big Crawford on strings in support, with some wonderful full band sides rounding out the package to give everyone the big picture. A couple of highlights to pay special attention to are the cha cha/shuffle strut of the band charging through 'Walkin' Through the Park' and the 'I'm a Man'-derived nastiness of 'Mannish Boy'.