Album Review: Muddy Waters, Hard Again, 1977 Epic/Legacy

The album that is claimed to have revitalised modern blues and re-started Muddy Waters’ career. What it definitely is, is some good, hard core blues. From the remake of hard rocking Mannish Boy to the lusty I Want to Be Loved, all the tracks are great blues classics. There is a really positive vibe throughout and it is obvious that all involved sure had fun making this album. Muddy assembled a class band of 7 musicians, including Johnny Winter (lead guitarist).

An interesting quirk is that Muddy is often credited with the great guitar work on the album. Apparently throughout the whole session, Muddy’s red Fender Telecaster ‘sat tuned and plugged into his amplifier next to him', or so claims Bob Margolin (rhythm guitarist). He has said that only himself and Winter played guitar on the album. Muddy Waters is one of the great blues guitarists, especially live and on earlier albums, but did not pick one string on Hard Again. But it is definitely him singing and what a great blues singer he is. This is one of the definitive blues albums of all time. I give it 4 stars.