Muddy Waters - Hard Again [180-gram]

Hard Again is the sound of Muddy Waters returning to the raw Chicago blues that made him, a 1977 comeback record pressed here on 180g vinyl.

By the mid-1970s Waters was already a legend, but Johnny Winter, a devoted fan, signed him to Blue Sky Records and produced this stripped-back session. Winter assembled a hard-hitting band that included harmonica ace James Cotton and pianist Pinetop Perkins, and let them play it live and loud, no studio polish required. It climbed to number 143 on the US charts, a remarkable result for a bare-bones blues record, and sparked a late career revival.

Mannish Boy returns with a swaggering, call-and-response chant, I Can't Be Satisfied is as lean and menacing as slide blues gets, Deep Down in Florida finds him in storytelling mode, and The Blues Had a Baby and They Named It Rock and Roll sums up the whole story in a title.

The playing is loose, loud and unmistakably human, with Waters' voice sounding as commanding as ever. Seven songs, no filler, and a reminder that the blues needs nothing more than a great band in a room. This 180g reissue brings that energy home, ready for anyone who wants to hear where rock and roll came from.