Muddy Waters Anthology
This was purchased as a gift for a fiend who "loves" Muddy Waters. She was thrilled with this collection and said it was the best!

Two smokin' slabs of bluesy goodness!
Muddy Waters was to mid-century Chicago as Charley Patton, Son House, and Robert Johnson were to the Mississippi Delta of the early 20th century: his catalogue is pretty much the foundation on which electric blues (and, by extension, rock `n' roll) rests- he mixed the raw swagger and cruel attitude of his predecessors and filtered it through vicious electric guitars and rumbling rhythms. It was a muscular, sweaty sound that dripped with pure emotion and hulking aggression. This collection brings together fifty of the man's best recordings for Chess Records (easily the most influential label in the history of the blues), winding its way from great early classics like "Rollin' Stone" (which inspired the name of a certain English rock `n' roll band) and "I Can't Be Satisfied" to rollicking masterpieces such as "Mannish Boy" and "Rock Me." This is easily one of the greatest collections of music ever assembled, and a damn-near-necessary purchase for any aspiring fan of blues or rock `n' roll.

The Definitive Starting place for Any Muddy Waters Collection....
Arguably one of the most important Blues guitarist, to ever pick up a guitar....Muddy Waters has seen his profile have something of a re-evaluation, over the last few years, as bands with a heavy blues-influence (such as "The White Stripes", "The Black Keys" "Jon Spencer blues Explosion".....and even classic established bands like "Led Zeppelin" & "The Rolling Stones" ), have seen a rise...in the amount of people reacquainting or indeed seeking about the original sources of these artists that influenced such bands.

Trading in a wide style of blues (Electric Blues, Slide Guitar, R&B, Delta Blues & Blues Revival....it's safe to say that if it's Blues that your after, Muddy Waters was a necessary required listening. This 2 Disk Anthology is probably without doubt the best one-stop purchase for anyone (Casual or otherwise), curious with the guitarist's prolific work. There is simply so much worthwhile material here, that it's one of those collections that cherry picks through pretty much Muddy Waters entire career, and for an artist that started recording from the 40's - 80's, it's a collection that is breathtaking in scope, track selection, sequencing and even the actual mastering of the disk is superb. Sometimes you'll find with blues recordings, that because the actual quality of the original recordings were anything less than stellar, that the CD format, sometimes merely highlights the recordings technical shortcomings. Well...not in this instance, because the label seems to have taken the time and effort to put together a disk that impresses greatly with the sound quality. And coupled with some of the most popular Muddy waters recordings ("Mannish Boy", I Can't Be Statifised", "Rollin And Tumblin Pt 1", "Louisianan Blues", "(I'm Your) Hoochie Choochie Man", "Just to Be with You", "Got Me Mojo Working", "Can't Get No Grindin"). If it's a popular or highly regarded regarded Muddy Waters track, that there's a likely chance that it'll feature on this Anthology.

The only thing that could possibly make you not consider picking up this amazing anthology, is due to the higher price (due to it being a anthology) or that you're a very causal listener, that wouldn't want to have so much material to digest. If you are the latter, then you'd be wrong....you can never have enough Muddy Waters, and if there two things that will hit home, when you buy this release is (1) The man, sure can play the guitar...and (2) you'll be surprised, how truly amazing it is, listening to this anthology in chunks...as it quickly grabs hold of you, and refuses to let go. Such is the brilliance of this Anthology, that it'll possibly, urge you to seek out similar blues artists (Howlin Wolf, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Albert King, Magic Sam...etc). And the highlight exactly why so many acts today, are looking back at artists such as these, for inspiration. Truly amazing!!!

A really good Muddy compilation
The 50 songs included that date from 1947 to 1972 are first rate songs from Muddy's prime. They're not the only worthwile Muddy by a long stretch though: He did some good work prior to 1947, there were many more good songs in the 1947 to 1972 period, and he did some really good work after 1972 as well. To do a really thorough Muddy compilation, I think you'd need at least 4 discs but these 2 discs with 50 songs total do a great job of highlighting Muddy at his prime. The liner notes are excellent and are a great source of information also.
I had the chance of seeing Muddy live in concert as opening act for the Allman Brothers in the mid 1970's. Before seeing him, I knew some of his big hits and I knew he was a great influence on Allmans, Stones, Led Zeppelin and many top rock bands. After seeing him live, I became a much bigger fan as did many of the people who saw him in that period. Muddy deserves every bit of critical respect he enjoys today and these 2 discs are an excellent document of why.

This is the blues right here
Muddy Waters is one of the greatest blues singers of all time, if not the greatest. His classic 1950s tracks had a profound influence on music as we know it today, particularly rock and roll. If your music collection has no Muddy Waters, then there's a huge hole that needs to be filled. If you really want to get into this classic music, Muddy Waters' Anthology is a great place to start. I personally don't own it. I have the two Chess collections His Best: 1947-1955 and His Best: 1956-1964, both of which are excellent. However The Anthology would be a much better choice because it has nearly everything that's on those two CDs, plus many more songs that aren't on them. Particularly from the early years, there are many more songs here that aren't on 1947-1955. Anthology has 50 songs total, and the two His Best collections combined have 40, so you get ten more songs with Anthology. Those additional tracks may not exactly be classics, the most essential stuff is contained on the His Best collections, however any Muddy Waters music is worth hearing and the more, the better.

Muddy's early songs are mostly raw and stripped down. Muddy plays an awesome slide guitar which is all over the early stuff. There's very little harmonica and also no bass and very little percussion. The songs are significantly less melodic than the later stuff. It's simply electrified delta blues. Then the stuff later has a more prominent rhythm section and the songs tend to be more catchy and not quite as raw. Unfortunately, Muddy's slide guitar also disappears for the most part as Jimmy Rogers takes over guitar duties. However, the great Little Walter plays an excellent harmonica on many of the tracks which is always a welcome addition.

If you're looking for a first Muddy Waters purchase, here you go. This is a great place to start, but not a great place to stop. Once you get a taste of Muddy, chances are you'll want more. After the essentials, I would recommend picking up Hard Again (1977), At Newport (1960), Fathers and Sons (1969), and I'm Ready (1978).