It’s a shame Sonny Boy didn’t live a little longer. It would have been hugely interesting to hear what he would have done with the quintet who became the Band . . .
Well, if you listen to what they did with “The Hawk” Ronnie Hawkins, you get a good idea, but I don’t know...he was pretty old and sick...and the Band was no doubt a great back up band for him...if I had to pick out something that could have been great, I would go with the old original Muddy Waters band staying together longer and see what they could have become...
if I had to pick out something that could have been great, I would go with the old original Muddy Waters band staying together longer and see what they could have become...With Muddy's vintage band you could anchor it to Otis Spann. As a matter of fact, if you want to hear what they sounded like live, hunt down Muddy Waters at Newport and, believe it or not, John Lee Hooker's Live at Cafe Au Go-Go---Muddy was playing the same shows and his band backed Hooker for his sets. I grant you that James Cotton wasn't the harmonica player Little Walter was (nobody really was, except maybe for Big Walter Horton and Sonny Boy Williamson if you're talking the vintage Chess players), but the band was still pretty tight and, considering Hooker's idiosyncratic style, they held their own with Hooker very well.