| Breakin' It Up, Breakin' It Down | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Live album by | |
| Released | June 5, 2007 |
| Recorded | March 4–18, 1977 |
| Genre | Blues |
| Length | 59:24 |
| Label | Epic |
| Producer | Bob Margolin |
Breakin' It Up, Breakin' It Down is a blues album by Muddy Waters, Johnny Winter, and James Cotton. It was recorded live in 1977, and released in 2007. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] It reached number 3 on the Billboard Blues Albums chart. [6]
In January 1977, blues guitarist and singer Muddy Waters released the studio album Hard Again . It was very well-received, and helped revive Waters' career. It won a Grammy Award for Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording. Hard Again was produced by Johnny Winter. Winter and James Cotton both played on the album, on guitar and harmonica respectively. [1] [2] [3]
In March 1977, Waters, Winter, Cotton, and the other musicians who had played on Hard Again went on a concert tour to promote it. The songs on Breakin' It Up, Breakin' It Down were recorded at three of those concerts – March 4 at the Palladium in New York City, March 6 at the Tower Theater in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, and March 18 at the Masonic Temple Theater in Detroit. [4] The concert tapes languished in the vaults of several different record companies, until they were released thirty years later. [2] [4]
In August 1977, Winter released a studio album recorded by the same group of musicians, titled Nothin' but the Blues .
On AllMusic , Richie Unterberger said, "It might have been spurred by a Muddy Waters album, but in fact Waters, Winter, and Cotton all took vocals – sometimes alone, and sometimes on the same song – on stage, and these 11 songs feature the vocals of each of the three in about equal measure.... It's undeniable, however, that Waters was, even at this relatively advanced age, by far the most commanding singer of the trio." [1]
In All About Jazz , Doug Collette wrote, "Waters, Winter and Cotton share the music as well as the stage – a crucial distinction in the dynamics that radiate from "How Long Can a Fool Go Wrong". There is familiar material here, including "Can't Be Satisfied" – Waters' signature tune and first hit – "Trouble No More", and the rousing (albeit somewhat predictable) encore, "Got My Mojo Workin'". There's a palpable sense that these songs are not only finding a new audience, but being rediscovered by the musicians, hence the reciprocal excitement builds through the sequencing of tracks." [2]
In Vintage Guitar , Dan Forte said, "Not a dull moment is to be found, as Muddy reprises his first hit, "Can't Be Satisfied", and shares vocals with Perkins on "Caledonia"; Winter serves up the Freddie King slow blues "Love Her with a Feeling" and J.B. Lenoir's bopping "Mama, Talk to Your Daughter"; and Cotton fires up "Rocket 88" and mines the deepest of all shuffles on "How Long Can a Fool Go Wrong". [3]
On Blinded by Sound, Josh Hathaway said, ""Caledonia" is one of the high points on this set and best examples of what Waters' presence means to a song. His performance is vital and magnetic and his interplay with Cotton and Pinetop is priceless!... Blues lovers will – and should – flock to this disc. It's not Waters at his best yet it reinforces just what a towering figure he is in the history of the blues and popular music." [4]
Musicians
Production
McKinley Morganfield, known professionally as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer and musician who was an important figure in the post-World War II blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of modern Chicago blues". His style of playing has been described as "raining down Delta beatitude".
Muddy Waters (1913–1983) was an American blues artist who is considered a pioneer of the electric Chicago blues and a major influence on the development of blues and rock music. He popularized several early Delta blues songs, such as "Rollin' and Tumblin'", "Walkin' Blues", and "Baby, Please Don't Go", and recorded songs that went on to become blues standards, including "Hoochie Coochie Man", "Mannish Boy", and "Got My Mojo Working". During his recording career from 1941 to 1981, he recorded primarily for two record companies, Aristocrat/Chess and Blue Sky; they issued 62 singles and 13 studio albums.
Joe Willie "Pinetop" Perkins was an American blues pianist. He played with some of the most influential blues and rock-and-roll performers of his time and received numerous honors, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and induction into the Blues Hall of Fame.
James Henry Cotton was an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter, who performed and recorded with many fellow blues artists and with his own band. He also played drums early in his career.
"You Shook Me" is a 1962 blues song recorded by Chicago blues artist Muddy Waters. Willie Dixon wrote the lyrics and Earl Hooker provided the instrumental backing; the song features Waters' vocal in unison with Hooker's slide-guitar melody. "You Shook Me" became one of Muddy Waters' most successful early-1960s singles and has been interpreted by several blues and rock artists.
Nothin' but the Blues is a 1977 album by guitarist and singer Johnny Winter.
Bob Margolin is an American electric blues guitarist. His nickname is Steady Rollin'.
Hard Again is a studio album by American blues singer Muddy Waters. Released on January 10, 1977, it was the first of his albums produced by Johnny Winter. Hard Again was Waters's first album on Blue Sky Records after leaving Chess Records and was well received by critics.
Willie Lee "Big Eyes" Smith was an American electric blues vocalist, harmonica player, and drummer. He was best known for several stints with the Muddy Waters band beginning in the early 1960s.
Muddy "Mississippi" Waters – Live is a live album by Muddy Waters, released in January 1979. It was recorded during the 1977–78 tour to support Muddy Waters' album Hard Again (1977) and features the same musicians, including James Cotton and Johnny Winter, who had produced the album.
I'm Ready is a studio album by the Chicago blues musician Muddy Waters. The second of his Johnny Winter-produced albums for the Blue Sky Records label, I'm Ready was issued one year after he found renewed commercial and critical success with Hard Again. The album earned Waters a Grammy Award in 1978. It was reissued in 2004 by the Epic/Legacy, with three additional songs.
King Bee is the fourteenth and final studio album by blues singer and guitarist Muddy Waters. Released in 1981, it is third in a series of records done for the label Blue Sky Records under producer/guitarist Johnny Winter. Recorded in three days some of the band members, namely Winter and guitarist Bob Margolin, were not happy with the result. As his health deteriorated, Muddy was forced to cancel an increasing number of shows. He died of a heart attack on April 30, 1983.
Calvin "Fuzz" Jones was an American electric blues bassist and singer. He worked with many blues musicians, including Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, the Legendary Blues Band, Mississippi Heat, James Cotton, Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson, Little Walter and Elmore James.
True to the Blues: The Johnny Winter Story is a compilation album by blues rock guitarist and singer Johnny Winter. Comprising four CDs, and packaged as a box set, it contains songs selected from numerous albums – some recorded in the studio and some live – released over a 43-year period, from 1968 to 2011, as well as several previously unreleased tracks. The box set also includes a 50-page booklet of essays and photos. It was released by Legacy Recordings on February 25, 2014.
David Maxwell was an American blues pianist, songwriter, and singer.
Johnny Winter (1944–2014) was an American rock and blues musician. From 1959 to 1967, he recorded several singles for mostly small record companies in his native Texas. In 1968, Winter completed his first album, The Progressive Blues Experiment, and in 1969, he was signed to Columbia Records. With the label, Winter had his greatest success on the main American record chart; Johnny Winter (1969), Second Winter (1969), Live Johnny Winter And (1971), and Still Alive and Well (1973) all reached the top forty on the Billboard 200 album chart. In 1974, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified Live Johnny Winter And gold, his only record to receive an award from the organization.
Can't Get No Grindin' is an album by blues musician Muddy Waters released by the Chess label in 1973.
"Unk" in Funk is an album by blues musician Muddy Waters released by the Chess label in 1974.
The Muddy Waters Woodstock Album is an album by blues musician Muddy Waters released by the Chess label in 1975. The album features Levon Helm and Garth Hudson from The Band and Paul Butterfield.
Anthony R. Geraci is an American blues and jazz pianist, organist, singer and composer. A keyboard player with a professional career in excess of 40 years, Geraci has played on stage with Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Otis Rush, Chuck Berry, Big Mama Thornton, Big Joe Turner, and Jimmy Rogers, and has recorded work with Big Walter Horton, Ronnie Earl, Big Jack Johnson, Zora Young, Sugaray Rayford, Debbie Davies, and Kenny Neal among others. Geraci's work has been nominated for a Grammy Award and he has had numerous Blues Music Award nominations. In addition to his work with others, Geraci has released eight albums in his own name.
