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Bob Margolin

"I am a Blues musician playing for my friends."

Bob Margolin was born May 9, 1949 in Boston and brought up in nearby Brookline, Massachusetts. Inspired by Chuck Berry, Bob Margolin started to play guitar in 1964 and began playing in Rock bands right awayfollowed the path of Chuck Berry’s inspiration back to the blues. He was especially taken by the music of Muddy Waters and listened to as much of it as he could find. Bob Margolin worked in Blues or Blues-Rock bands in the Boston area, including with Luther "Georgia Boy" "Snake" Johnson, and The Boston Blues Band. In August, 1973, Bob Margolin saw Muddy Waters at Paul’s Mall in Boston. Muddy Waters hired him to play in his band. The Muddy Waters Band toured the world and jammed with many great Blues and Rock musicians. In 1975, they recorded Grammy Award-winning Muddy Waters Woodstock Album, his last with Chess Records, featuring Paul Butterfield, and Levon Helm and Garth Hudson from The Band. Throughout the last half of the ‘70s, Bob Margolin had time off from Muddy Waters' Band, he would add on to Washington D.C.’s The Nighthawks and The Charlottesville Blues All-Stars. In 1976, Bob Margolin performed with Muddy Waters The Last Waltz Concert. Martin Scorcese filmed the concert for the movie of the same name. Bob Margolin also played on the four albums that Muddy Waters recorded for Blue Sky Records, which were produced by Johnny Winter, and with Johnny on his Nothin’ But The Blues Album. Three of those albums won Grammy Awards. Until Muddy Waters' death in 1983 Bob Margolin worked with Pinetop Perkins, Jerry Portnoy, Calvin "Fuzz" Jones, and Willie "Big Eyes" Smith in The Legendary Blues Band, which they formed, but at this time Luther "Guitar Jr." Johnson and Bob Margolin started their own bands and opened shows for Stevie Ray Vaughan, George Thorogood, and Johnny Winter. In 1989 Bob Margolin recorded his first solo album The Old School for Powerhouse Records. In 1990 he toured with James Cotton and met Luther Tucker, a great blues guitar player who had worked with Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson, and Robert Lockwood Jr. In 1997 Bob Margolin played with other musicans Tribute to Muddy Waters, which featured Buddy Guy, Koko Taylor, John Hiatt, Keb’ Mo’, Big Bill Morganfield, Robert Lockwood, Jr., Charlie Musselwhite, and Johnnie Johnson. Since 1993 Bob Margolin has been writing a regular column for Blues Revue, the largest-circulation Blues magazine world-wide. In 2004, Bob Margolin won the W.C. Handy Award Best Historical Recording and in the year 2005 the Handy Award for Guitar.

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