This 1981 recording found
Waters being produced by rocker
Johnny Winter, who had brought
Muddy back to form on the
Hard Again album. Winter was smart enough to surround the great one with musicians who knew his music intimately -- regular band members like Calvin Jones,
Willie "Big Eyes" Smith,
Luther "Guitar Jr." Johnson, and
Bob Margolin dot the lineup -- and Johnny keeps his own excesses in check on a nice brace of tunes. While most of the tunes here are recuts of older Chess material,
Muddy's versions of
Slim Harpo's title track and his own "Champagne & Reefer" are worth checking out. Not the place to start a
Muddy Waters collection, but a good one to add to the collection after you've absorbed the classics on Chess.