Howlin Wolf, Muddy Waters - The Real Folk Blues (Chess Records 75th Anniversary Series Remastered Mono Vinyl - 2026 Reissues)

Chess Records’ 'The Real Folk Blues' series was designed to cater to the "Folk revival craze" that swept through the 1960s.

Muddy Waters’ ‘The Real Folk Blues’ released in 1966 marked the inaugural release of this series, showcasing some of Mud's earliest recordings.  Notably, it includes his inaugural recording for the Aristocrat label, the precursor to Chess Records.  The early material on this record encapsulates the essence of early blues music before its transition into the electric era.  Songs like "Mannish Boy", "Walking Blues" and "Walking In The Park" serve as poignant reminders of Muddy Waters’ profound influence on the musical landscape of America.

Although most of these tracks were recorded in Chicago studios, often with electric guitar in the mix, the spirit is unmistakably down-home. There's a stark, front-porch authority in the performances — spare instrumentation, unvarnished arrangements, and a gritty, conversational vocal style that carries the emotional weight of Delta tradition straight into the urban blues era.

Tracklist:
Side A
1. Mannish Boy
2. Screamin’ And Cryin'
3. Just To Be With You
4. Walkin’ Thru The Park
5. Walkin’ Blues
6. Canary Bird

Side B
1. The Same Thing
2. Gypsy Woman
3. Rollin’ And Tumblin’ - Pt. 1
4. Forty Days And Forty Nights
5. Little Geneva
6. You Can’t Lose What You Never Had

Howlin’ Wolf's 'The Real Folk Blues' is a compilation of singles recorded between 1956 and 1965.  The music on this record offers a daring portrait of Howlin' Wolf, showcasing exceptional music that hadn’t been presented in album format before.  Classics on this record include "Killing Floor", "Tail Dragger", and "Built for Comfort".

This album did not fit the usual definitions of the so-called "folk blues", featuring instead Chicago urban blues by an incomparable singer and a host of great sidemen (including Hubert Sumlin and Buddy Guy), but Chess was making a move to remarket the blues to a new audience that had developed with the boom in folk music.

What's interesting is when you consider how many of the songs on this album have become standards in the repertoires of countless blues and rock bands, it's hard to fathom that none of these Wolf 45s sold well enough to make the Billboard R&B charts.

Tracklist:

Side A
1. Killing Floor
2. Louise
3. Poor Boy
4. Sitting On Top Of The World
5. Nature
6. My Country Sugar Mama

Side B
1. Tail Dragger
2. Three Hundred Pounds Of Joy
3. The Natchez Burnin’
4. Built For Comfort
5. Ooh Baby (Hold Me)
6. Tell Me What I’ve Done

The freeloads are 24-bit/192 kHz vinyl (180-gram) rips of both albums released this past May.  
They have never sounded better.

For the freeload make up a music subgenre.