1. Rich Woman 2. Killing the Blues 3. Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us 4. Polly Come Home 5. Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On) 6. Through the Morning, Through the Night 7. Please Read the Letter 8. Trampled Rose 9. Fortune Teller 10. Stick with Me Baby 11. Nothin 12. Let Your Loss Be Your Lesson 13. Your Long Journey

Perhaps only the fantasy duo of King Kong and Bambi could be a more bizarre pairing than Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. Yet on Raising Sand, their haunting and brilliant collaboration, the Led Zeppelin screamer and Nashville s most hypnotic song whisperer seem made for each other. This, however, is not the howling Plant of Whole Lotta Love, but a far more precise and softer singer than even the one who emerged with Dreamland (2002). No matter that Plant seems so subdued as to be on downers, for that s one of the keys to this most improbable meeting of musical galaxies--almost all of it seems slowed down, out of time, otherworldly, and at times downright David Lynch-ian, the product of an altered consciousness. Yet probably the main reason it all works so well is the choice of producer T Bone Burnette, the third star of the album, who culled mostly lesser-known material from some of the great writers of blues, country, folk, gospel, and R&B, including Tom Waits, Townes Van Zandt, Milt ...

#Hypnotic (2008-08-19) I was hesitant about this purchase but once I listened to it. . WOW!! Very relaxing and the 2 voices were ment to sing together. It s a perfect cd for a romantic night or a diner party. Robert Plant is a man of many talents. . from ROCK GOD OF THE 70 S to a mature and mello Rock God!!!

#GREAT CD (2008-01-22) Being a Zep fan it was hard to imagine how this work would turn out but it is fantastic. It may take a bit to get used to a more mellow Robert Plant but the more you listen the more addictive it becomes. A great addition to any cd collection regardless of your taste in music.

#Superb! (2008-01-08) I recommend this album to all music lovers regardless of your genre leanings. Krauss voice is simply stunning (I cannot think of a female vocalist with a more pure, subtle or beautiful voice) and Plant has finally learned to sing properly!!! Don t get me wrong -- I am a dedicated Zep fan -- but this is the first time I have heard his voice truly shine. Love this album s version of Please Read the Letter and Sister Rosetta gives me goosebumps. Highly, highly recommended. It s too bad the immature and vacuous review by Jean-pierre Falardeau Jeeparoo had to scar t...

#Borefest (2008-01-03) Boring. . . . . Boring. . . . . . . . Why did plant do this I don t know. . . . He must be gettin old. Good CD if you are an insomniac !!! zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

#Quite Over-Hyped, But Still Pretty Good! (2007-12-30) This album has received a ton of hype, and in some senses it is warranted. The combination of Plant and Krauss is in itself something of a spectacle that is guaranteed to get attention. But I m struck with the fact that they actually go together pretty well musically! It sounds like they ve been together for a long time. Throughout, this CD is soothing and composed quaintly. The entire thing has a nice, smooth cohesion to it. But yet, the individual tracks are generally not all that impressive on their own. Only 3 tracks real...

1. I Can t Be Satisfied 2. I Feel Like Going Home 3. Train Fare Blues 4. Rollin and Tumblin , Pt. 1 5. Rollin Stone 6. Louisiana Blues 7. Long Distance Call 8. Honey Bee 9. She Moves Me 10. Still a Fool 11. Standing Around Crying 12. Baby Please Don t Go 13. I Want You to Love Me 14. (I m Your) Hoochie Coochie Man 15. I Just Want to Make Love to You 16. I m Ready 17. Young Fashioned Ways 18. Mannish Boy 19. Sugar Sweet 20. Trouble No More

One of the best recordings in Chess Records 50th Anniverary series is the first of two bookend Muddy Waters collections, His Best 1947-55. Documenting Waters s most creatively and commercially successful years at Aristocrat/Chess, this collection begins with his formative years and ends with Waters at his peak. So you re in for a lot of terrific bottleneck slide guitar work as well as electric Chicago blues, what s to criticize? Superb remasterings of I Can t Be Satisfied, Rollin and Tumblin , I m Ready, and Mannish Boy are simply beyond reproach. With simple bass accompaniment from Ernest Big Crawford, Waters s bottleneck tracks are spare, haunting and, quite frankly, perfect country blues. And listening to Waters, Little Walter, Willie Dixon, and Jimmy Rogers piece together (and perfect very quickly) the classic Chicago sound is pure blues epiphany. At the very least, this collection shows you why Waters s rollicking stop-time classics like Mannish Boy and I m Your H...

#Blues from heaven (2004-04-27) This album blew my mind and is essential listening for any lover of blues, rock or any form of music(interested listeners are requested to also check out Howlin Wolf His Best CD issued simultaneously by Chess Records). Nearly 50 odd years later the music sounds as fresh as yesterday. If this isn t where all the rock maestros of later years got their sonic ideas, it should have been.

#Great Classic Music (2004-01-03) These are the seminal years of the second, the electric wave of Chicago Blues. Muddy Water s collaborations, especially with Willie Dixon here, created the modern Chicago blues which replaced the older acoustic style represented best by Tampa Red and Big Maceo, and by Lil Hardin Armstrong and Lonnie Johnson collaboration. The older smaller tighter, more person (and it is hard to talk about anything more personal than even the least well prepared Muddy sides),blues. The performances are breathtaking in their strength. You know this man, and you k...

#Excellent compilation (2003-12-08) Excellent compilation, eh? So why only four stars?Well, the track selection is really good, bringing together almost all the best of Muddy Waters rough, muscular blues. Or rather, the best of 1947-55, which is why this is only a four star-compilation: It s not a career spanning retrospective, and it doesn t work all that well on its own. But get this CD along with its companion volume, His Best: 1956-1964, which also features 20 tracks, and you ll have a really fine career overview, second only to the three-disc Chess Box set (and perhaps the 50-tr...

#There is not a finer collection... (2003-08-06) . . . of Muddy s earlier works out there to my knowledge. It features such essentials as Can t Be Satisfied, Hoochie Coochie Man, and Mannish Boy, showing Muddy s transition from the raw Delta blues to Chicago blues style. An excellent album. Highly recommended.

#5-stars ...OBVIOUSLY (2003-06-20) B. B. King called Muddy Waters the greatest of the great and this CD demonstrates why. Rough. Raw. Filled with emotion. Performed by the greatest blues band ever assembled: Muddy, Jimmy Rogers, Otis Spann, Little Walter, Fred Below and on many cuts, Willie Dixon on bass. And some people thought that Cream was a supergroup! This is the Book of Revelation when it comes to the blues, but check out Muddy s ",Folksinger", as well to get another side to this giant of American music, right up there with the Duke, Satchmo, Hank Williams, etc. A...

1. Kindhearted Woman Blues 2. Kindhearted Woman Blues 3. I Believe I ll Dust My Broom 4. Sweet Home Chicago 5. Rambling on My Mind 6. Rambling on My Mind 7. When You Got a Good Friend 8. When You Got a Good Friend 9. Come on in My Kitchen 10. Come on in My Kitchen 11. Terraplane Blues 12. Phonograph Blues 13. Phonograph Blues 14. 32-20 Blues 15. They re Red Hot 16. Dead Shrimp Blues 17. Cross Road Blues 18. Cross Road Blues 19. Walking Blues 20. Last Fair Deal Gone Down

This two-CD box contains all 41 recordings Johnson made, including 12 alternate takes, and each cut remains a classic. This set s release in 1990 caused quite a stir, selling more than 500,000 copies, and, on the basis of endorsements from Eric Clapton and Keith Richards, introduced a great number of rock fans to Delta blues. Amazingly, Johnson built his enormous legacy on the strength of just two recording sessions: the first session, in November of 1936, produced among others I Believe I ll Dust My Broom, Sweet Home Chicago, Cross Road Blues, and Walkin Blues, making it perhaps the most influential single session in blues history. --Marc Greilsamer

#The Godfather of the Blues (2007-04-14) It is truly wonderful to have the whole corpus of Johnson s work collected in one place. It is a shame that nothing was done to improve the terrible sound quality, which, given the time and technology, is understandable. With no tech in my background I would be at a loss for suggestions. Still, it seems reasonable assume that more could have been done to clean up these discs, which is why I have rated the collection at a mere 3 stars.

#Best blues I have ever heard! (2004-06-19) This is one of the first blues C. D. s I ever bought, and it is the best. I have since perchaced C. D. s by Muddy Waters, Charley Patton, Son House, Skip James, Blind Lemon Jefferson and several others, and while they are all very good none of them are as good as Robert Johnson. I definitely recomend this to anyone even slightly interested in the bles. I would like to point out that the reviewer calling himself Tony Thomas is RACIST. I have read several of his reviews and he uses the term ",bleus lovers", derisively put into quotes ...

#The Greatest Music Ever! (2004-04-27) In Robert Johnson : The Complete Recordings , you will hear the most powerful blues there is. Robert Johnson s music is more than great, it s magic, it s indefinable. I ve never heard anything like that and I know I never will find anything similar. He creates a blues world of his own where everything is possible. He brings you in his visions, his fears, his joys, his hopes, his loves, his travels. . . Also, his guitar skills are fantastic, his emotion is truely unique and his lyrics really define the everyday life of a traveling black blue...

#Statistics for statistics buffs, not music (2004-04-25) Look: There are forty-one tracks on this album, but only twenty-nine songs. How to account for the discrepancy? Well, I can t. All I can say is that someone who wants to listen to multiple takes IN A ROW of the same songs EVERY TIME he listens to an album is NOT interested in music. Next time, if we really have to have alternate takes, let s confine them to a separate disc, please. Thank you very much.

#recorded in a shoe box!! (2004-04-22) This stuff is horrible!!! The mix is all wrong and the recording sucks!!! I cant even hear the gitar!!! Get Bodge s version instead!! Get ANY-THING by Bodge instead!!!

1. My Babe - Little Walter 2. Violent Love [#] - The Big Three Trio 3. Third Degree - Eddie Boyd 4. Seventh Son - Willie Mabon 5. Crazy for My Baby [#] - Willie Dixon 6. Pain in My Heart [#] - Willie Dixon 7. (I m Your) Hoochie Coochie Man - Willie Dixon 8. Evil - Howlin Wolf 9. Mellow Down Easy - Little Walter 10. When the Lights Go Out - Jimmy Witherspoon 11. Young Fashioned Ways [#] - Muddy Waters 12. Pretty Thing - Bo Diddley 13. I m Ready - Muddy Waters 14. Do Me Right - Lowell Fulson 15. I Just Want to Make Love to You - Muddy Waters 16. Tollin Bells - Lowell Fulson 17. 29 Ways [#] - Willie Dixon 18. Walking the Blues - Willie Dixon

Best known for his work as a songwriter, producer, and talent scout, singer-bassist Willie Dixon essentially built Chicago s Cobra and Chess labels with his sweat. Although this double-disc set does include five performances by the man from Vicksburg, Mississippi, himself, it s really a testament to his songwriting prowess, packed with recordings that made his tunes classics of blues and early rock & roll. There s Howlin Wolf tearing through Spoonful, Little Red Rooster, Evil, and Back Door Man. There s Muddy Waters belting You Shook Me, Hoochie Coochie Man, and I m Ready. There s Bo Diddley delivering You Can t Judge a Book by Its Cover and Koko Taylor launching her career with Wang Dang Doodle. The set features excellent liner notes, and its only disappointment is that its label-centricity excludes Dixon s work for Cobra with then-youngsters Otis Rush and Buddy Guy. --Ted Drozdowski

#New to the Blues start Here (2003-12-20) Willie Dixon was the Driving force behind Chess records from putting pen to paper writing the music to teaching Howlin Wolf the words to the music . . . This boxed set is the sound of 1950 s Blues

#Exciting addition to the Chess Box series (2003-11-16) Willie Dixon is the featured performer on only six of these thirty-six songs. But he is there on the rest as well, composing, producing, playing bass, and usually taking a back seat to stars like Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, Little Walter and Bo Diddley. All of these songs are written and composed or co-composed by Willie Dixon, including classic blues hits like Little Walter s My Babe, Bo Diddley s Pretty Thing, Muddy Waters Hoochie Coochie Man, and Howlin Wolf s magnificent Hidden Charms with its fiery guitar solo. But there a...

#Chess Box Set Willie Dixon (2003-02-22) Willie has a CD out that the title is ", I am the Blues",yes he is and this box set shows just why. it s all here From Willie and the Big three back in the late 30 s to little Walter Koko Taylor to Howlin Wolf

#Willie Dixon - Author of the Urban Blues (2002-01-25) Willie Dixon was a blues singer, bass player, song writer, promoter, producer, and much more. This box set has only a few songs sung by Willie, but that is probably appropriate, because one of his greatest gifts was to write the words that helped make others legends. Beyond the world of the blues, Willie was, and is, a muse for rock musicians. His songs such as Spoonful, Evil and I m ready are classics in both generes. In this set all of the the performers are blues singers. Legemds such as Howlin Wolf, Muddy Waters, Jimmy With...

#Dixon IS The Blues On The Essential 2CD ",Chess Box", (2000-04-24) Willie Dixon gave the blues (and, by proxy, rock and roll) much of its identity and personality. As a songwriter, he created some of music s most indelible images: the Back Door Man, Little Red Rooster, Hootchie Coochie Man, and Seventh Son. He not only gave British and Southern rock and roll much of its early repetoire, but his songs became their monikers (",Spoonful,", ",Pretty Thing",). He played bass on many seminal Chess Records sides (for Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, Chuck Berry), ...

1. My Home Is in the Delta 2. Long Distance Call 3. My Captain 4. Good Morning Little Schoolgirl 5. You re Gonna Need My Help 6. Cold Weather Blues 7. Big Leg Woman 8. Country Boy 9. Feel Like Going Home 10. Same Thing [*] 11. You Can t Lose What You Never Had [*] 12. My John the Conqueror Root [*] 13. Short Dress Woman [*] 14. Put Me in Your Lay Away [*] 15. Put Me in Your Layaway [*]

Muddy Waters started out playing acoustic blues in the Delta, and it shows on this return to his roots, designed to appeal to the mid-1960s surge of interest in folk music. The back of the CD includes a photo of Waters with bassist and songwriter Willie Dixon, as well as a very young Buddy Guy, gathered around a single microphone. This particular CD reissue includes five bonus tracks, among which are The Same Thing and Short Dress Woman, which take advantage of the longer CD running time. All of the other reasons to hear this one remain--Waters s strong, confident voice, the relaxed smoothness of the material, and the surprisingly clean recording, made even cleaner by the digital remastering. --Genevieve Williams

#I m confused (2005-10-26) I m confused, how is it that a recording that was made so long ago, can easily surpass,and by a broad margin, the quality of recordings made today. Copies of this cd should be passed out to recording engineers when they start their training. My speakers dissapear and images just hover in space. Excellent music to boot too!

#Everything Muddy ever recorded is real folk blues! (2004-01-16) I first heard this record at a place called ",The Commune", a house I stayed in while travelling through Detroit a lot back in the late 1960s working for the Young Socialists. I learned, not with music but in the brain, some of these songs like ",My Home in the Delta", and they are so classic that they became part of my brain and my understanding of the blues both as a listener and as a performer. I only got the CD about 10 years ago. This is classic music. This is your basic strong Muddy Waters perfo...

#Great ",Muddy Unplugged", (2003-11-16) Before the blues revival of the 60s really kicked into gear, Muddy Waters and Chess Records made this acoustic album to attract the attention of the folk-loving coffee house crowd. But ",Folk Singer", is really no more of a folk record than anything else Muddy Waters did, it is simply Waters playing the blues the way he did it back in the 40s - acoustically. He is backed on the first nine cuts (which made up the original ",Folk Singer", LP) by Buddy Guy and Willie Dixon, and occationally drummer Clifton James, and goes thr...

#*****************A ZILLION STARS*************************** (2003-11-05) This is it! If you don t like this music, then you really can t be into the blues. It may be acoustic, but it s got all the power, feeling and raw emotion that is Muddy Waters, from ",My Home Is in the Delta", to the last note. The backing band is great and the sound is so good you ll think they re playing in your head. I recommend this to anyone, not just as great blues, but as great music.

#This IS the blues...10 big fat stars! (2003-02-18) This is one of the most awesome blues discs I have come across. It s actually older than I am, but the sound is awesome. It was playing in the other room, and I kept wondering who was yelling at me! Muddy s known for his electric side, but this doesn t lose anything by going acoustic. With Buddy Guy and Willie Dixon as the backing band, how can you go wrong. A great CD for those interested in the REAL blues.