It's hard to talk about Muddy Waters without resorting to superlatives. While the songs on Real Folk Blues can be described as standard blues--and over the years, many of them became blues standards--Muddy Waters simply did them the best. Maybe it's that there's never a note out of place, yet Muddy makes it sound easy; or maybe it's that baritone voice. Or maybe it's the magical pairing of Muddy the player and Willie Dixon the songwriter, which produced "Mannish Boy," "Walking Blues," "Same Thing," and more. Whatever it is, it's on this album--blues music so real you can taste it. --Genevieve Williams