Muddy Waters – Folk Singer, 200gr, USA, Analodue Productions, High Quality, Gatefold Sleeve

Muddy Waters’ Folk Singer remains rightly revered as the greatest-sounding blues album ever released—and, to date, one of the only bonafide audiophile records in the genre. Originally issued in 1964 by Chess Records, the all-acoustic work has made the rounds as a demonstration disc and benefitted from myriad reissues, all of which sought to improve upon Willie Dixon and Ralph Bass’ legendary, subtlety-abundant production while bringing the musicians into your room. More than five decades after Waters, Buddy Guy, and company initially gathered in a Chicago studio in September 1963, those feats (and more) are finally accomplished in definitive, unsurpassed fashion courtesy of Mobile Fidelity. Limited to 10,000 numbered copies, pressed on dead-quiet MoFi SuperVinyl at RTI, and mastered from the original master tapes, Mobile Fidelity’s ultra-hi-fi UltraDisc One-Step 180g 45RPM 2LP collector’s edition pays tribute to the album’s merit and enhances the intimate program for generations to come. Playing with reference-setting sonics that more than justify its existence in a field filled with prior audiophile reissues of Folk Singer, this spectacular collector’s version provides a clear, transparent, ultra-dynamic, and up-close view of a set that inspired Rolling Stone to deem it the 282nd Greatest Album of All Time and proclaim it “a pioneering ‘unplugged’ set beloved by blues and folk fans alike.”