Muddy Waters' appearance at the 1960 Newport Music Festival may have been a success, as his set of electric blues won over the crowd at the annual jazz show, but At Newport 1960 just doesn't get a lot of play from me. I blame the poor engineering for my lack of interest. At times Muddy and whoever is singing backup are off mike when they sing. At other times the editing sounds a little choppy, with a couple of songs abruptly coming to an end. The band sounds tight and well rehearsed behind Muddy, especially James Cotton on harmonica and Otis Spann on piano. Bass player Andrew Stevens and drummer Francis Clay round out the quintet. But the sound quality doesn't fully capture this group in concert. (I have heard, though, that a later CD remaster cleaned up the sound considerably, but my opinion is based on the CD version that I purchased about 12 years ago.)

Among the concert's highlights are the stop-start tension and pseudo-voodoo lyrics of "I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man," the blues n' boogie vibe of "Baby Please Don't Go," the upbeat and suggestive "Tiger in Your Tank," and a loose and boisterous version of Big Bill Broonzy's "I Feel So Good." The songs are short (three of them clock in under three minutes) yet packed with energy, from Muddy's controlled phrasing and biting guitar interjections to Cotton's harmonica fills to Spann's terse piano rolls.

However, I could have done without the two parts to "I've Got My Mojo Working." The first part is effective as Muddy and the band work over the audience on the song's shuffle beat, but the second part is simply a reprise based on crowd response after the band had finished playing the song and Muddy asked the crowd what they wanted to hear next. I guess he scores points for granting the crowd their wish, but the pandering feel to it sounds like one of those things that work best in the moment and not so well when you play the album over and over.

The opener, Willie Dixon's "I Got My Brand on You," introduced by Muddy as a new song, plods along. As such, it drains the set of its energy, meaning the songs that come after it must work that much harder for the listener's attention. The same can be said for the closer, "Goodbye Newport Blues," which sounds like it was improvised on the spot.

Oh well, At Newport 1960 is live Muddy Waters, which means you get the chance to hear a blues legend play before an audience. That makes it worth something, but I'd rather listen to a live B.B. King or Otis Rush album before this one, or one of Muddy's many studio compilations.

Recommended: Yes