Muddy Waters

As important as Muddy Waters' music was in postwar America, relatively few people will soak up all his genius the first time through. The rewards for staying with it, however, are vast. "The Chess Box," a beautifully produced, well-annotated, six-album, three-CD box set (MCA), is as close as anyone will come to presenting a capsule history of Muddy Waters. It includes 72 tracks, from "Gypsy Woman" in 1947 through the early '70s. Along the way it picks up a few obscurities - the unreleased "Good Looking Woman" from 1948, plus some alternate takes - but mostly it sticks to the core of Waters' music, classic blues like "Rolling Stone," "I Just Want to Make Love to You," "Forty Days and Forty Nights," "Got My Mojo Workin," "She's Nineteen Years Old," "Mannish Boy" and "Hoochie Coochie Man. " Ironically, this is where the uninitiated may get confused.

Welcome to another season of dirtysomething, the NFC East miniseries in which the Washington Redskins critique the Eagles' brand of football. In yesterday's installment, several Redskins discussed the Eagles' latest prime-time performance, a 32-24 win over the Minnesota Vikings. Specifically, the Redskins addressed safety Andre Waters's controversial knee shots on Minnesota quarterback Rich Gannon that are currently under review by NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue. "I thought it was outrageous," defensive tackle Tim Johnson said.

Muddy Waters had a face that was as majestic as the blues. It was defined by high cheekbones, a broad nose and eyes that always held a twinkle. His mouth, topped by a suave, meticulously groomed mustache, was small, except when he smiled, when it seemed big enough to swallow you whole. It was a face whose dignified presence insisted that an exclamation point be put on a line from his song "Mannish Blues": "Ain't that a man!" Blues is often a bad dream, with artists dying young, broke or unappreciated - sometimes all three.

The sound of his electric guitar rang out over Wembley Soccer Stadium, and as 69-year-old Jimmy Rogers began to sing a song he had composed, "Walkin' By Myself," his audience sang along. As a guest performer at the Rolling Stones blues tribute in June, Rogers provided the English crowd with authentic postwar Chicago blues, a combination of tender Mississippi Delta blues and aggressive Chicago rhythm. It was the sound that he helped develop in the 1950s when he played with legendary bluesman Muddy Waters.

1. b. Muddy Waters. 2. c. Ron Wood. 3. a. "Come On. " 4. d. Aftermath. 5. b. Their Satanic Majesties Request. 6. c. Brian Jones. 7. a. Gimme Shelter. 8. d. Andy Warhol. 9. b. She's the Boss. 10. d. Keith Richards.

Like James Brown, Sam & Dave made great records, but they were even more dynamic on stage, where their galvanic showmanship revealed another, essential dimension of their artistry. That's what makes Sam & Dave: The Original Soul Men such a treat. This two-hour documentary tells the story of Sam Moore and Dave Prater through interviews with Moore himself (Prater was killed in a 1988 car crash), former Stax Records chief Al Bell, and bandleader Paul Shaffer, who notes, "Sam and Dave were two preachers on stage, preaching the gospel of soul.

Two Buddy Guys shared the Keswick Theatre stage Tuesday night. Both wore overalls, a plaid work shirt, and sneakers, grinned luridly, and wrenched live-wire solos out of a gloriously tacky, black-and-white polka-dot guitar. But while one - the blues maverick, whose high-energy performances have long been the stuff of legend - made an admirable showing, the night was dominated by his underwhelming double. For most of his distended set, the 65-year-old Guy enacted a ritual that was affirming, rather than genuinely moving.

In 1950, as the blues, gospel and jazz cross-pollinated but before Detroit's Motown, before Memphis' Sun and Stax - and well before Philadelphia International Records - there was Chicago's Chess label. Those of a certain age fondly remember its logo, a silhouette of a king chess piece flanked by those of bishop and knight. Martin, who made her film debut in 1994 with the raucously funny I Like It Like That , wrote and directed this ensemble drama with music and narrative enough for five features.

There's a Muddy Waters song that goes "the blues had a baby and they named it rock and roll. " All that was fine until that baby had a slew of grandchildren and somehow spawned the garage rock wrecking crew that is the Black Lips. This all-boy Atlanta quartet - capable of mashing-up blues, doo-wop, country, and psychedelic noise within their rough-hewn punk at the drop of a dime - is notoriously messy. They're famous for on-stage nudity, barfing, and the discharging of other fluids.

The Band, a quintet of four Canadians and one self-described Southern cracker, initially won fame in the '60s as Bob Dylan's backup musicians. After the 1968 release of its debut album, Music From Big Pink, The Band enjoyed an eight-year run as the mighty Mississippi of rock, its music a confluence of rockabilly, rootsy, bluesy and bluegrassy backwaters that converged to overflow the riverbanks with its brand of folksy romanticism. Martin Scorsese's The Last Waltz (1978), along with Woodstock one of the great rockumentaries ever, celebrates The Band's 1976 farewell concert in San Francisco.

BY NOW it's obvious that the highly publicized, $5 million class-action lawsuit charging Budweiser with overstating its alcohol content is pure B.S. The plaintiffs, including two Montgomery County brothers, say that Anheuser-Busch deliberately waters down its beer, and that its alcohol content is "significantly" overstated on its labels. But the lawsuit provides no evidence to back up that claim. It cites no scientific-based data, or even how much Bud drinkers are being shortchanged.

1. b. Muddy Waters. 2. c. Ron Wood. 3. a. "Come On. " 4. d. Aftermath. 5. b. Their Satanic Majesties Request. 6. c. Brian Jones. 7. a. Gimme Shelter. 8. d. Andy Warhol. 9. b. She's the Boss. 10. d. Keith Richards.

Etta James, 73, the powerful rhythm-and-blues singer whose more than five-decade career spawned such enduring hits as "At Last" and "Tell Mama," making her a profound influence on younger generations of female vocalists, died Friday. Ms. James, who suffered complications from leukemia, according to her manager, had been beset with a variety of health problems. In 2009, she was diagnosed with dementia; the following year, she was hospitalized with a staph infection. In December, weeks after the release of The Dreamer , which was billed as her final studio album, Ms. James' doctor told the Riverside (Calif.)

Texas guitarist Johnny Winter has had an epic career. The 67-year-old wizard has, since his 1969 start, released top-selling blues albums; produced, recorded, and toured alongside Muddy Waters (their 1977 efforts Hard Again and Nothin' But the Blues are holy books in the blues bible); and had songs written specifically for him by John Lennon and the Rolling Stones' Jagger & Richards team. His career also has had its dark side, with Winter battling serious heroin addiction and suicidal depression, both since conquered.

THIS JUST IN: Rivers often cross state boundaries. In fact, some rivers actually are state boundaries. So if hazardous waste were dumped into the Delaware River in, say, Trenton, some of it would almost certainly find its way to Philadelphia. And we likely would have a problem with that. When it comes to water quality, we're all in this together. That's why the Clean Water Act - which sets and mandates the enforcement of national standards for water quality - has been essential to protecting the environment for nearly four decades.

It's been nearly 10 years since I marched with the Raleigh Avenue Rebels, but I remember the steamy hike as clearly as the sparkling water the day we tried, and failed, to reach Diamond Beach. Some feisty retirees had invited me to their summer paradise between the Wildwoods and Cape May to show how a developer had taken the beach hostage. For decades, folks walked onto the sand at the end of their block with impunity. In 2002, a corporation called the Atlantis Beach Club stationed a bouncer seeking $750 for admission to the sand for the season or $10,000 for a lifetime pass.

AUSTIN, Texas - Pinetop Perkins, 97, one of the last old-school bluesmen who played with Muddy Waters and became the oldest Grammy winner this year, died Monday at his home of cardiac arrest. Mr. Perkins was having chest pains when he went to take a nap and paramedics could not revive him, said his agent, Hugh Southard. The piano man played with an aggressive style and sang with a distinctive gravelly voice. He accompanied Sonny Boy Williamson on the popular King Biscuit Time radio show broadcast on KFFA in Helena, Ark., in the 1940s.

One of the many highlights of The Well , Charlie Musselwhite's stirring new album, is a song called "Sad and Beautiful World. " Featuring his old friend Mavis Staples on guest vocals, it was inspired by the murder of his 93-year-old mother in her Memphis home in 2005. The key line is: "Let the blues heal what's been torn apart. " For Musselwhite, the blues more than any other music is all about healing and survival. "That's the nature of the blues," the 66-year-old singer, songwriter, guitarist and harmonica virtuoso says over the phone from a bus near Portland, Ore., while touring with Cyndi Lauper.