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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
****1/2 - great reissue of a tremendous album, August 3, 2004
The second of Muddy Waters' Blue Sky-albums, "I'm Ready" was originally issued in 1978, one year after Muddy had found renewed commercial and critical success with "Hard Again".
Johnny Winter produced and played on both albums, and if "I'm Ready" is slightly lesser than its magnificent predecessor, it is still a tremendous album. Remastered but (thankfully) not remixed, it finds Muddy Waters reinvigorated and in the company of Chicago blues greats Jimmy Rogers and Big Walter Horton, playing a supremely confident set of gritty, muscular electric blues. And the core of the Muddy Waters band is in place as well, of course, Willie "Big Eyes" Smith on drums and the great Joe "Pinetop" Perkins rolling the ivories.
Muddy's regular second guitarist Bob Margolin plays bass on this album, and he has contributed a wonderful, intimate six-page essay about the "I'm Ready" sessions. Margolin was instrumental in bringing guitarist Jimmy Rogers, a member of the very first Muddy Waters band in the late 40s, on board, and at his suggestion the great Walter Horton was hired to play the harmonica. Horton's exceptional playing is constantly smouldering beneath the gritty guitar parts of Waters, Rogers, and Johnny Winter.
The numerous highlights include the hard-hitting title track, the slow grind of "33 Years", the swaggering power of "Rock Me", and of course an excellent re-recording of the classic "Hoochie Coochie Man". And this 2004 reissue adds three terrific bonus tracks:
Jimmy Rogers' "That's Alright" sung in part by himself, a magnificent, driving rendition of Bob Margolin's "Lonely Man Blues", and a stinging "No Escape From the Blues", a song which would appear in a significantly different version on 1981's "King Bee".
There are no weak songs here, actually, and "I'm Ready" is definitely a must-have addition to any Muddy-fan's collection. If you already own the original CD issue you might not want to shell out again in order to get three bonus tracks and some better liner notes, but if you don't, you should get it right away.
And if you do own it, well...these are very good bonus tracks!
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL AND REQUIRED, PART 2, June 7, 2004
This is perhaps the greatest studio recording of the blues ever made. Re-united with 2 of his oldest colleagues, Muddy waters created a CD full of nuance, subtlety, variety, and power that enchants you all the way through. You will have an incredibly hard time not listening to this CD over and over again. "I'm Ready" says it all: Muddy was absolutely ready for this session, as were each of the remarkable musicians who accompany him herein. You will never catch a group of artists so compoletely on, all at the same time, that seamlessly they weave a sexually heated and often humourous take on the human condition. "Who Do You Trust" runs down the main suspects and highlights the sly underpinnings that compromise such endorsements. "Hoochie Coochie Man" humbles everyone who ever took on this track. "Copper Brown' is as sensual a paean as you'll ever hear, steamy as a night on the Delta. "Rock Me" is as feral a plea for sexual satisfaction as you will ever hear.
Winters captures the band so authentically that it all sounds as though it was recorded live in a single take. It wouldn't surprise me if that were so because each person's part is delivered so spot on that you could never duplicate that with an overdub. This Cd won Muddy a Grammy in 1979. Rightfully so. It should have been record of the year. 3 additional tracks are added here and they are all keepers, each a sparkling full throated gem. You are no fan of the blues unless you have this CD, and in particular this remaster. This is what justifies the whole remastering process. Brilliant!
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Copper Brown shines., June 26, 2006
By far one of the greatest albums Muddy ever recorded together with "Hard Again" and "Mississippi Live".
Watch out as Johnny Winter unleashes one of the grittiest, dirtiest guitar solos ever managed on the track "Copper Brown". He bends and swoops his way through it. Being with Muddy brought out the best in Johnny Winter, as he said himself it was the time in his career when he KNEW he wasn't faking it but was truly playing the Blues.
There's a superb version of the title track on here and the song "Who Do You Trust?" really makes a sound statement.
Never again will you get such a fine team of artists on one album.
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