Muddy "Mississippi" Waters Live in Bloomington, MN

Accompanied by
Johnny Winter
and his band,
Muddy Waters
turns in an enthusiastic performance on
Muddy "Mississippi" Waters Live
. The set list contains most of his biggest hits, and the sound quality and performances are mostly energetic. Still, there's something faintly repetitive about this record. For one thing, there's only one song here,
"Deep Down in Florida,"
that comes from any of
Waters
' recent albums. All of the others are old
standards
, which makes this album rather superfluous, since there are equally forceful performances of these cuts elsewhere. It doesn't help any that
"Deep Down in Florida"
isn't an especially noteworthy song, sounding more like a rewrite of
' older, better cuts. Without much in the way of new material, or anything especially notable about the performances, it sometimes comes off as little more than a set of
' greatest hits, with applause as the sole new ingredient. The addition of
is surprisingly unexceptional as well, since
Winter
fades into the background as much as any other bandmember. None of it is unlistenable, but it's hardly indispensable.
is a nice addition to the
catalog, but it's not nearly as essential as his earlier work. ~ Victor W. Valdivia