I wake up every morning here in Clarksdale, Mississippi, and think about the young Muddy Waters working, playing and recording (these sides) just a five-minute drive from where I lay my head. Amazing. - Roger Stolle (Cat Head)

"Recorded on Stovall Plantation in Clarksdale, MS by Alan Lomax in 1941 and 1942, these 18 tracks represent the first recordings of a sharecropper named McKinley Morganfield a.k.a. Muddy Waters. And, yeah, there's an unreleased track, and four interviews. Alan Lomax, searching for Robert Johnson (recently deceased, at the time), came through and recorded a young McKinley Morganfield. The rest is history. Early versions of future classics can be found on these field recordings from 1941-42, and the guitar and voice that would have unimaginable influence on blues and rock 'n roll."

  1. Country Blues (Number One)
  2. Interview #1 (Previously Unissued)
  3. I Be's Troubled
  4. Interview #2 (Previously Unissued)
  5. Burr Clover Farm Blues (Previously Unissued)
  6. Interview #3 (Previously Unissued)
  7. Ramblin' Kid Blues (Partial. Previously Unissued)
  8. Ramblin' Kid Blues
  9. Rosalie
  10. Joe Turner (Vocal: Percy Thomas)
  11. Pearlie May Blues (Vocal: Percy Thomas)
  12. Take A Walk With Me (Second Guitar: Son Simms)
  13. Burr Clover Blues (Second Guitar: Son Simms)
  14. Interview #4 (Previously Unrelaeased)
  15. I Be Bound To Write To You
  16. I Be Bound To Write To You (Second Version, Second Guitar: Charles Berry, Previously Unissued)
  17. You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone (Number One)
  18. You Got To Take Sick & Die Some Of These Days
  19. Why Don't You Live So God Can Use You
  20. Country Blues
  21. You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone
  22. 32-20 Blues