Muddy Waters – Folk Singer (AP 200g Vinyl LP)

Now at 33 1/3 RPM!

Mastered by Bernie Grundman from the original 1964 Chess analog masters

200-gram vinyl pressed at Quality Record Pressings

Gatefold jacket with extra photos!

There are a handful of landmark albums in any genre. In the blues, one of them is Muddy Waters’ Folk Singer. It’s been an audiophile staple for years. Originally released in 1964, Folk Singer was the only acoustic album Waters ever recorded, thus becoming the first and perhaps best blues concept album ever. Muddy of course started out playing acoustic blues in the Delta, and he’s clearly very comfortable in this return to his roots, which was designed to appeal to the mid-1960s surge of interest in folk music.

Muddy’s supporting cast includes a very young Buddy Guy on guitar, Willie Dixon at the upright bass and Clifton James on drums.

This recording has enormous presence with ample room for Muddy’s booming voice to resonate.

“The Quality Record Pressing is drop-dead quiet-as silent as the best Japanese pressings from the late 1970s-and the amount of inner detail released is simply astonishing…the sound is sweet, liquid and free of harshness and edge. The dynamics are mind-boggling. When Muddy takes it up ten notches to emphasize a point it’s positively explosive in a way the 33 1/3 version only suggests.” Music = 9/10, Sound = 10/10! — Michael Fremer, musicangle.com.