Muddy Waters

Muddy Waters
McKinley Morganfield also known as Muddy Waters, was born on April 4th 1913 in Rolling Fork, Mississippi. He died April 30th 1983 in Chicago, Illinois. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war blues. “Morganfield's mother died when he just three years old, and from then on he was raised on the Stovall Plantation in Clarksdale, Mississippi by his grandmother, Della Grant. Grant is said to have given young Morganfield the nickname "Muddy" because he liked to play in the mud as a boy, and the name stuck, with "Water" and "Waters" being tacked on a few years later.” He was a singer, a songwriter, a guitarist, and leader of one of the strongest bands in the genre.
Waters took the influences of rural blues from the Deep South and moved them uptown, putting a fierce, electric energy in hid music. Having already mastered the rudiments of the harmonica and guitar, Waters began performing and Alan Lomax documented this early country blues period. Touring the south making field recordings for the Library Of Congress, this renowned archivist and his colleague John Work tracked down, interviewed and recorded Waters on a portable disc recorder on a number of occasions between August 1941 and 1942. At first Muddy hid from them thinking they were policeman arresting him for making illegal liquor’. The first momentous recording was ‘Burr Clover Blues’, although this track was only used as a recording guide. The following year Waters moved to Chicago where he befriended ‘Big’ Bill Broonzy, whose influence and help proved vital to the younger performer.
Waters soon began using amplified, electric instruments and by 1948 had signed a recording contract with the newly founded Aristocrat label, the name of which was later changed to Chess Records. Waters’ second release, ‘I Feel Like Goin’ Home’/‘I Can’t Be Satisfied’, was a minor R&B hit and its understated accompaniment from bass player Big Crawford set a pattern for several further singles, including...