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Here's the background: In 1966 the Canadian television network CBC invited some of America's legendary blues artists, including Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, and James Cotton, to a Toronto studio, where they spent three days recording together and individually. The result was a one-off, black-and-white special broadcast as part of CBC's "Festival" series. Jump ahead three decades. Those original session tapes are found, restored, and rereleased for this 1996 video, with the addition of wraparound commentary by Canadian blues performer Colin James. With most of these artists long gone, it's a great pleasure to see such a concentration of their voices and styles in a uniform setting. Consider, too, that in '66 the legacies of some of these folks were getting a huge push from the English blues scene (the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, etc.), and one can sense an air of renewal and reinvigoration in their performances. Everything here could deservedly be called a highlight, so suffice it to say that Waters and his band prove to be the nexus for much of what goes on here, including three aching performances from the master himself, two from his piano sideman Otis Spann, and a couple from Waters's intermittent bassist, Willie Dixon, like Spann a Chicago legend himself. Also on board is pianist Sunnyland Slim and a rare sighting of Mable Hillery, but it's arguable that three performances here by those keepers of the country blues flame, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee--soon to find a whole new audience on the '70s college circuit--are the happiest entries on this volume. --Tom Keogh
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