"A Tribute to Muddy Waters: King of the Blues" (05/18/1999) Blues Various Artists, Hybrid RecordingsFilmed at the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C. Muddy Waters: King of the Blues may be the least historically oriented of the three DVD tributes devoted to the late blues legend, but it also may be the most fun of any of them. Taped at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., in 1997, it does have a historical segment recounting his inspiration to play the blues, his life on Stovall's Plantation, and his move to Chicago. And there are interviews with musicians, including Keb' Mo', Keith Richards, Bob Dylan, Koko Taylor, et al., as well as priceless vintage television with a close-up of Muddy playing a slide solo, but mostly this is made up of performances: Keb' Mo' doing "I Can't Be Satisfied," Koko Taylor doing "I'm Ready" and "Long Distance Call," Phoebe Snow performing "Just to Be With You," Big Bill Morganfield (Muddy's son) on a thunderous "Hoochie Coochie Man," Buddy Guy doing "She's Nineteen Years Old," Charlie Musselwhite performing "I Got a Rich Man's Woman," Robert Junior Lockwood on "Mean Red Spider," and Nick Gravenites doing "Forty Days and Forty Nights." The tribute band, incidentally, includes Musselwhite, Johnnie Johnson, Bob Margolin, and Barry Goldberg, who also served as music director. The only flaw in the 115-minute program is that the makers were unable to get clearances to show the segments by Bo Diddley and by Gregg Allman on the DVD. They're mentioned and shown in the opening credits, but that's as far as they go in showing up musically. The disc comes with the choice of PCM stereo or Dolby 5.1 Surround, and each performance gets a chapter marker. The only bonus on the DVD itself is a live clip from 1968 of Muddy doing "Got My Mojo Working" in loud, vivid, pounding sound -- it's the perfect capper to the performances that are in the main program. The DVD also comes with the CD version of the event as a bonus feature, although it's a little unclear as to which is the bonus feature -- the CD includes the insert that one would get with the jewel case if it were purchased separately, while the DVD gets no insert, and the whole package isn't that much more expensive than the CD would be. ~ Bruce Eder A Tribute to Muddy Waters: King of the Blues is the soundtrack to the PBS television special of the same name. The bulk of the show and the soundtrack are devoted to a tribute concert held at the Kennedy Center on October 11, 1997. As is typical with any Kennedy Center concert, the show was filled with American music legends, and even if the featured artists may occasionally seem a little odd -- Phoebe Snow may be a great singer, but she's never truly been associated with the blues -- they all turn in solid performances. Problem is, they're undone a little bit by the bookend contributions from Muddy himself. "Trouble No More" and "Got My Mojo Workin'" are undisputed classics and they hammer home the fact that even if other musicians can deliver enjoyable versions of Waters' songs, nobody can sing them like Muddy himself. Still, selections from Keb' Mo' ("I Can't Be Satisfied"), Koko Taylor ("Long Distance Call"), Charlie Musselwhite ("I Got a Rich Man's Woman"), John Hiatt ("The Same Thing"), Robert Jr. Lockwood ("Mean Red Spider"), and (especially) Peter Wolf ("Rollin' & Tumblin," plus the affectionate liner notes), make this worthwhile for Muddy devotees wanting to hear a loving new spin on classic tunes. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine