Search - Various Artists, Muddy Waters, Otis Spann :: Fathers & Sons

The Homecoming

BluesDuke | Las Vegas, Nevada | 08/19/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The Grove Press Guide to the Blues critic quoted above is way off the mark - this wasn't the elders taking the youngbloods under their wing in 1969, this was a class reunion: Paul Butterfield and Mike Bloomfield had, in fact, played and learned first hand what the blues was all about as Chicago teenagers haunting the South Side in the late 1950s/early 1960s; and, Sam Lay had been half of Howlin' Wolf's rhythm section before Butterfield snapped him up for the original Butterfield Blues Band. No matter. The class reunion doesn't necessarily break new ground but it DOES give a better than asked for idea of just what and how the youngbloods learnt from the masters a decade earlier in the clubs. Waters and Spann set them the table, and Butterfield especially plays as though his entry into a doctoral program depends upon his master's thesis. Bloomfield is no slouch, either; he may be a little too reverent, but he breaks long and well enough to uncork some sharp fills and stings, and of course he remains peerless as a soloist when he takes a turn. Lay is back in his element and Duck Dunn, the stalwart Stax house bassist, plays as though he'd been waiting for this date for years, though his work backing Albert King on those classic Stax sides of his in the mid-1960s should have been the hint that he wouldn't be exactly out of place in this setting. Maybe it's material Muddy had played a million times before, but if ever he needed the proof that no one could tire of it, here it was. And, is. And he sure sounds like he had fun."

The critics be damned

gordon@ruraltel.net | 02/09/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The critics are wrong here, this collaboration WORKS! Come on, look at whose playing on this record...I'm not saying that it's better than the bands that he had in the 50s, but this band rocks, and Butterfield, Bloomfield and Sam Lay work perfectly with Spann and Muddy. Not to be missed if you're a Muddy or blues aficianado."

Muddy's best work ever

S Clark Mooney | USA | 03/05/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Fathers and Sons is undoubtly Muddy's best work ever. The recording is much better quality than earlier Chess recordins. The other musicians are better than those in Muddy's normal band. The songs are performed in a more loose and relaxed fashion. It has the spontanuity of the old live jam sessions anybody who ever saw one perfers over a very planned recording session."