Muddy Waters - I'm Ready [Proper]

Title: I'm Ready [Proper] Artist: Muddy Waters Release Date: 2009 Label: Proper Sales & Dist. Album Type(s): Greatest Hits UPC: 805520017060 Genre: Blues Styles: Chicago Blues, Electric Chicago Blues, Electric Blues, Slide Guitar Blues, Regional Blues Moods: Confident, Earthy, Exuberant, Passionate, Plaintive, Raucous, Rollicking, Rousing, Boisterous, Cathartic, Earnest, Energetic, Exciting, Greasy, Gritty, Rowdy, Amiable/Good-Natured, Fiery, Freewheeling, Melancholy, Organic, Playful, Autumnal, Brooding, Party/Celebratory, Quirky, Visceral, Wry Total Copies: 0 Members Wishing: 0 Number of Discs/SwapaCD Credits: 1

1. Gypsy Woman
2. Canary Bird
3. Louisiana Blues
4. She Moves Me
5. Sad, Sad Day
6. Evil
7. Long Distance Call
8. Gone to Main Street
9. Blow Wind Blow
10. I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man
11. Just Make Love to Me
12. I'm Ready
13. I'm a Natural Born Lover
14. Young Fashioned Ways
15. Sugar Sweet
16. Forty Days & Forty Nights
17. Live the Life I Love
18. She's Nineteen Years Old
19. Close to You
20. She's Got It

Year Type Label Catalog # ------ CD Proper Sales & Dist. 1706

No other editions were found for this album.

The U.K.'s Proper imprint usually gets it right when it comes to reissues. That said, the trio of chicago blues collections they released in 2009 -- the other two being Headhunters and Rollin' Stone -- are stellar. This set is a cross-career comp entitled I'm Ready -- not to be confused with the Blue Sky/ Sony Legacy title of the same name. The music here begins with Waters' early Chicago folk-blues sides (none of the Stoval plantation recordings are here), and follows his path through the '50s with his own smoking hot bands right on through the '60s. In other words, all the material here was recorded for Chess. That most of this stuff is commonly available should not be a deterrent for either the fan or the merely curious. The music is beautifully compiled, the sound is remastered, and the price is extremely attractive. The tune selection is quite representative -- and yes, all fans will have something to nitpick as to what was left off. But this is not meant to be a definitive compilation of Muddy Waters tracks, but merely a show of the trajectory of his trailblazing path, and at that, it does an excellent job. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide

Name Credits Charles Shaar Murray Author Karin Ussher Design Muddy Waters Author Paul Swinton Transfers, Mastering Russell Beecher Compilation, Annotation Tommy Willis Transfers, Mastering