High Compression

This 1984 album captures the former Muddy Waters Band harmonica powerhouse\'s down-home and uptown sides. Ten high-energy tunes are split between two bands. A quintet spearheaded by fellow Mississippians Pinetop Perkins on piano and Magic Slim on guitar supports Cotton on Delta-based numbers like the randy \"Diggin\' My Potatoes\" and \"No More Doggin\'.\" A funky, backbeat driven octet with a horn section pounds out up-tempo, James Brown-inspired booty shakers like \"Ying Yang\" and \"No More Cuttin\' Loose.\" Cotton handles both styles with righteous vigor, and his coarse sandpaper singing and bold, horn-like harmonica lines - full of fat tones and note-bending virtuosity - demand attention even when the big band\'s at full throttle. It\'s unbridled performances like these that made Cotton, who lost his voice to cancer in the \'90s, a favorite of \'70s and \'80s rock audiences.