Muddy Waters "Folk Singer"

What's the best Vinyl or CD version of this great 1964 Acoustic Blues album?

 

I have the Classic Records LP and the MFSL CD, I think both are excellent.

 

I´ve got the MFSL version, the SACD and Classics HDAD. I think they all sound excellent but I think the HDAD is the best version. Just wish all music could have this kind of serious approach on dynamics and mastering. Very nice record...........

 

I like the MFSL disc but if you have a dvd player then get the HDAD as it is stunning.

 

"Folk Singer' was one of the first 'unplugged' 'modern' blues recordings and it offers stellar presence and sound.
Leonard and Phil Chess were riding the new found acoustic folk popularity and offered Muddy an opportunity to record something different
from the more 'modern' electric blues sounds popular at the time.
A revisit to the Mississippi Delta acoustic slide guitar sound of the early days ... some pure acoustic blues ...

This sound is deep and pristine recorded with a clear direct path before recording technology started to use all the outboard studio processing.
Classics has the HDAD and 180 gram vinyl still in print but even the very inexpensive regular Chess CD reissue CHD12027 sounds phenomenal!

'Folk Singer' was also apparently the record that Keith Richards had in his hands when he met Mick Jagger in the early sixties.
Mick introduced himself after noticing Keith holding a copy of 'Folk Singer' while waiting for the train to arrive.
A brilliant album and superb recording by my favorite blues artist!

 

This album may have great sonics, but the performances it contains always left me a bit flat. The guitar work is primarily played by Buddy Guy on acoustic, not Muddy.

A good, but not essential, Muddy recording.

 

I have this one - good one

Artist: Waters, Muddy
Title: Sings Big Bill Broonzy/Folk Singer
Label: MCA/Chess
Catalog Nº: CHD-5907
Format: CD
Year: 1986
Mastering: Mastered by Steve Hoffman
Notes: Uncredited

 

Buddy was a great choice and a much better guitarist than Muddy IMO.
It's not my favorite MW album for performance alone but the sound of his voice throughout,
as in "My Home Is In The Delta" and "My Captain" for example is captured wonderfully.
Also love the minimalist approach with the acoustic guitar, drum and bass...
I'm biased with Muddy, anything I can find that I didn't already have is essential ...

 

My preference:

1. Classic HDAD
2. MFSL CD
3. MCA/Chess CD

 

I still have yet to hear that one. EVERYBODY mentions it when you bring him up. I'm an "electric Muddy" fan myself. This afternoon I was listening to my Blue Sky vinyl copy of "Hard Again". I never seem to get tired of that one. Some purists balk at it, saying it's nothing like the late '60's Muddy, but I just love it. I mean, you have Johnny Winter on guitar (plus Bob Margolin on guitar as well), "Pine Top" Perkins on piano, Willie Smith on drums, Charles Calmese on bass, and James Cotton doing some of his best harmonica work ever. It's 100% classic in my book.

 

I still don't know why Ron Malo put so much reverb on this one. It sounds like Muddy Waters in a cave.

 

I'm not sure that this is still the case. Everywhere I've looked for a copy of the HDAD, it's shown as either out of print or back ordered with no potential delivery date. I can't even find it on Classics website anymore.

 

The definitive digital version...

 

... I kinda like that Muddy 'cave' sound ...

You're right, it does look like the HDAD is now OOP ...

 

Which one? There's the two-fer Steve did, as well as the reissue of just Folk Singer with bonus tracks, done by (IIRC) Erick Labson. Not sure if there are more...

 

How is the single layer SACD?

 

You know, I've often wondered if some of the flatness that people perceive has to do with the mix (reverb included). I can't help but think that this LP would sound quite different in mono.

 

Musically it grew on me. A three stage thing: at first it struck me as a bit tepid although there was also a certain visceral effect; then I began to tire of it; then one time it just struck a right chord I guess and I've dug it muchly ever since.

Sonically? Geez one of the greatest such recordings I've ever beheld and has had the fortune to recieve many sympathetic masterings, yet there's complaints. Would that most recordings were so rich, palpable and dynamic; it makes so many other records sound like so much processed cheese.

The 'verb? With instruments and voice sounding like that, I wouldn't care if it sounded like it was recorded under the Vatican dome.

Flatness? It's practically Muddy Waters In 3-D wherever I've played it. I see you're not asserting that yourself but I'm at least as puzzled that it would be percieved as "flat." Poor rez from whatever its being played on? Yes it would sound different in mono but if anything it's better off on all counts for being a fine stereo recording IMH. There's not a lot of mix to this album either, more down to mic placement, which seems to be superbly arranged.

A Rolling Stone gathers no moss, but it can get plenty Muddy.

 

Quite the feat, considering Folk Singer was recorded about 3 months after 'Come On' was released

 

The way Keith Richards tells it in the 25 x 5 documentary, it was Mick who was carrying "Best Of Muddy Waters" and "Rockin' At The Hop" by Chuck Berry" when they ran into each other on a train station platform or something.

 

Good catch. The phrase is still true though.

 

Muddy Waters "Folk Singer" was recorded in September '63 and released in '64. ......."(Keith and Mick met) one day in 1960 they accidently met on a train and talked about starting up a group. "



It was Muddy Waters 1958 England tour though that really turned the Brits on to the new US Electric Blues.

"......He (Muddy) headed to England in 1958 and shocked audiences (whose only previous exposure to blues had come via the acoustic folk/blues sounds of acts such as Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee and Big Bill Broonzy) with his loud, amplified electric guitar and a thunderous beat. "

 

I think you're missing the point. There is no flatness in the mix. I'm talking about flatness as in lack of energy. I like the album a great deal, but even Robert Gordon (in his 2003 biography about Muddy Waters) said it's not one of his favorites....that it takes away from Muddy what made him Muddy. What I'm suggesting, is that the mix is what makes it flat. That when mixed to mono, perhaps (I'm guessing since I have not heard the mix) the whole thing gels in a big way and the energy is restored.

 

I have a DAD 24/96 Classic Records disc... did they later do one that's different (i.e. HDAD)?
.

 

The only version I have ever had is the MFSL. I don't see the need in looking for another version. The Mofi is perfect.