Muddy Waters brought a Son House-like Delta country-blues style north with him from Mississippi to Chicago in 1943, intent on making a living from music. Switching from acoustic to electric guitar in order to be better heard in the Chicago clubs and bars, Waters gradually assembled one of the greatest ongoing bands in the history of blues, and in the process, he and his band assembled the very template for classic Chicago blues. Waters first cut a track for the Chess Brothers in 1947, who released it on their Aristocrat Records imprint, and for the next two decades or so, he turned out the basic iconic catalog of electric Chicago blues for various Chess imprints. This set combines two of his Chess albums, 1967's Muddy, Brass and the Blues, which adds horns and prominent organ to Waters' basic band format, and 1973's Can't Get No Grindin', his next-to-the-last album release for Chess, which featured the debut of Pinetop Perkins as pianist in the Muddy Waters Band. ~ Steve Leggett