Johnny Winter’s supervision of Muddy Waters’ comeback in 1977 was far more productive than The London Muddy Waters Sessions of 1972 (and even more so Howlin’ Wolf’s collaborations with British musicians the year prior). Recorded with the late Texas bluesman alongside members of the blues icon’s own band–plus harpist James Cotton with whom the albino had worked before–Hard Again was in fact the first of three such releases (in addition to a collection of live recordings) and the initial project on Blue Sky Records following Waters’ departure from his long-time home label Chess. Rather than demonstrate health issues that would afflict him later this same year, the concert clip from 1981 exhibits all the joy and pathos in the best work of the man born McKinley Morganfield.
