I Be's Troubled

Long before Chicago and the electric guitar, this was Muddy Waters in his rawest form. Alan Lomax and John Work III hauled a 500-pound disc recorder to Muddy's cabin at Stovall Plantation. It's a solo acoustic performance, documenting his early Delta slide technique before it was amplified. The story goes that when Muddy heard the playback, it was the first time he realized he sounded like a professional. He would later electrify and re-title this track as "I Can't Be Satisfied" for Chess Records, cementing the modern Chicago blues template.