THE BEAT GOES ON
CHICAGO—Muddy Waters holds up a massive, pleated hand, waving it through the air 'til the late morning light falls on its fleshy furrows. The hand is folded with age; mottled like a harpooned whale, with callouses and a long, razor thin scar that extends up along a meaty finger (one of the reasons Waters has gradually phased out his slide guitar theatrics).
THE BEAT GOES ON
Champagne Breakfast With Muddy
CHICAGO—Muddy Waters holds up a massive, pleated hand, waving it through the air 'til the late morning light falls on its fleshy furrows. The hand is folded with age; mottled like a harpooned whale, with callouses and a long, razor thin scar that extends up along a meaty finger (one of the reasons Waters has gradually phased out his slide guitar theatrics). Muddy is prepared to go out on tour to promote Hard Again, his new Johnny Winter-produced Blue Sky album and his first record after severing a 30-year association with the Chicago-based Chess blues label.
As the title (or a glance at the striking Richard Avedon cover portrait) suggests, Muddy is none too old for a comeback. He is proud and self-assured, having shaken off the misery of a near-fatal auto crash and his waning years at Chess, which were marked by a string of ill-conceived exploitative album projects, reaching a nadir with The Muddy Waters Twist and Electric Mud, a humiliatingly crass attempt to cash in on the late '60s psychedelic furor.