The Rolling Stones (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, and Ron Wood) have helped curate a pretty impressive blues collection titled, Confessin’ The Blues, which drops on November 9th. The news of the set comes on the heels of the band’s Grammy Award winning 2016 set, Blue & Lonesome, According to the official press release, “Confessin’ The Blues includes tracks by the biggest blues pioneers including Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker, Elmore James, Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, Big Bill Broonzy, and Robert Johnson. All of these artists had an impact on the nascent Rolling Stones, be they influencing Keith’s guitar licks or Mick’s vocals and lyrics. As Ronnie Wood says: ‘That’s how Mick and Keith first got close as well, on the train coming back from college. They noticed each other’s record collection and it was,’ Hey, you’ve got Muddy Waters. You must be a good guy, let’s form a band.'” A Portion of the proceeds will benefit Willie Dixon’s Blues Heaven Foundation.
Mick Jagger said, “The first Muddy Waters album that was really popular was Muddy Waters at Newport, which was the first album I ever bought.”
Keith Richards added: “If you don’t know the blues. . . there’s no point in picking up the guitar and playing rock n’ roll or any other form of popular music.”
Keith Richards recently shed some light on the difference from an avid music fan and a working musician: “Once you become a musician, you kind of give up one thing, which is just the sheer innocence of listening to music, without bothering to know how it’s done, or even bothering to figure out why. Just the sheer innocence of just listening to music. And that’s what musicians tend to forget. Because, once you’re into music, you’re always trying to figure out what the cat’s playing. So, it becomes, like, you’re distracted in a way. Here’s to all the listeners, y’know, that don’t have to bother about knowing this stuff.”
After the first day of sessions running through the assorted blues material that made up Blue & Lonesome, Mick Jagger said he went the extra mile to ensure the Stones didn’t cover the same ground for the next two sessions: “The producer, Don Was, said to me, ‘You’d better get a list of blues songs, ’cause I think everyone’s going to wanna do more tomorrow.’ So, I went and did my homework and sat at my computer and looked at my blues collection and made a list. I tried to pick the ones that we’d never done before. That was one criteria. And the other one was different tempos and different artists and that sort of came together and we did 12 songs. And we mixed it, and I said, ‘What are we gonna do with that?‘ So, we started to put it out, really simple.”
SOURCE: Press release
THE TRACKLISTING TO CONFESSIN’ THE BLUES IS:
DISC ONE
Muddy Waters – Rollin’ Stone
Howlin’ Wolf – Little Red Rooster
John Lee Hooker – Boogie Chillen
Little Walter – Hate To See You Go
Chuck Berry – Little Queenie
Bo Diddley – You Can’t Judge A Book By It’s Cover
Eddie Taylor – Ride ‘Em On Down
Slim Harpo – I’m A King Bee
Magic Sam – All Your Love
Elmore James – Dust My Broom
Little Walter – Just Your Fool
Muddy Waters – I Want To Be Loved
Big Bill Broonzy – Key To The Highway
Robert Johnson – Love In Vain Blues
Mississippi Fred McDowell – You Gotta Move
Jimmy Reed – Bright Lights, Big City
Big Maceo – Worried Life Blues
Little Johnny Taylor – Everybody Knows About My Good Thing (Part 1)
Howlin’ Wolf – Commit A Crime
Otis Rush – I Can’t Quit You Baby
Jay McShann & Walter Brown – Confessin’ The Blues
DISC TWO
Howlin’ Wolf – Just Like I Treat You
Little Walter – I Got To Go
Chuck Berry – Carol
Bo Diddley – Mona
Muddy Waters – I Just Want To Make Love To You
Elmore James – Blues Before Sunrise
Eddie Taylor – Bad Boy
Boy Blue – Boogie Children
Jimmy Reed – Little Rain
Robert Johnson – Stop Breakin’ Down Blues
Reverend Robert Wilkins – The Prodigal Son
Lightnin’ Slim – Hoodoo Blues
Billy Boy Arnold – Don’t Stay Out All Night
Bo Diddley – Craw Dad
Dale Hawkins – Suzie Q
Amos Milburn – Down The Road Apiece
Howlin’ Wolf – Little Baby
Little Walter – Blue And Lonesome
B.B. King – Rock Me Baby
Buddy Guy – Damn Right I’ve Got The Blues
Muddy Waters – Mannish Boy
