Mud Morganfield & Kim Wilson

For Pops: A Tribute To Muddy Waters
Severn Records

Mud Morganfield and Kim Wilson had recorded a handful of songs with each other on two recent albums, Morganfield’s Son Of the Seventh Son and The Fabulous Thunderbirds’ On The Verge, and one thing that had been noted was the apple did not fall too far from the tree when it came to Morganfield’s singing. He inherited an eerily pitch perfect inflection of his father’s voice. So much so that people wanted to hear an album of Mud doing his daddy’s music.

To do the music of Muddy Waters, though, you needed to put the right band together. And working with Kim Wilson that was pretty much a given that he was the exact person that had to be included. After all, Muddy always used the best when it came to musicians, especially harmonica players. And in the modern world of blues, there is no denying that Wilson is one of the best. The band was rounded out with some of the absolute monsters of blues players: Billy Flynn and Rusty Zinn on guitars, Rob Stupka on drums, Steve Gomes on bass and Barrelhouse Chuck on piano. And as was true with all of Muddy’s bands, this is one sharp and coherent unit, performing as an ensemble and not individuals trying to match the others output.

The album titled For Pops was recorded over a four-day period, all done live in the studio with the musicians working next to one another in the same room and only Mud isolated in a sound booth to ideally capture the tone of his voice. For the selection of tracks they wanted to mix several of Muddy’s most beloved numbers such as “Nineteen Years Old,” “Blow Wind Blow,” “Trouble No More” and “”I Love The Life I Live, I Live The Life I Love,” alongside lesser known selections like “My Dog Don’t Bark” and “Just To Be With You.” It makes for an incredible tribute to his father’s music and it comes across sounding just as his daddy would’ve been proud of had he done it himself.

For Pops is not only a fine recording of Muddy Waters’ material, it is an excellent example of some of the finest bluesmen of our time laying down that Chicago groove that made us all fall in love with the blues to begin with.

Total Time: 47:25

Gone To Main Street / Just to Be With You / I Don’t Know Why / I Want You To Love Me / Still A Fool / My Dog Don’t Bark / She’s Got It / I Love The Life I Live, I Live The Life I Love / Blow Wind Blow / Nineteen Years Old / I Want To Be Loved / Trouble No More / I Just Want To Make Love To You / She Moves Me