Blues Search Engine: Muddy Waters

Born McKinley Morganfield in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, on April 4, 1915. He got his nickname "Muddy Waters" from his grandmother growing up in the area because of his fondness for playing in mud puddles. Muddy Waters' mother, Berta Jones, died when he was very young, and he was subsequently raised by his grandmother. Muddy Waters was very eager to play music as a child, and after learning the harmonica, Muddy Waters bought his first guitar in 1930. He was soon in a regional outfit, The Son Sims Four, as a vocalist. Muddy Waters worked on his guitar style with the group. Muddy Waters was first recorded on a Mississippi Delta plantation by Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress in 1941. In 1943, Muddy Waters moved to Chicago, Illinois, and took a factory job. In Chicago he switched from acoustic to electric guitar which was becoming increasingly popular among black musicians. By 1946, Muddy Waters had gained the attention of record producers. Muddy Waters cut some tracks for Columbia Aristocrat Records (which would later evolve into Chess Records). With his deep, rich voice, charismatic, ultra-macho personality, and an all-star backing, Muddy Waters rapidly became the most recognizable figure of Chicago Blues. Muddy Waters' bands were a "who's who" of Chicago blues musicians: Little Walter, Big Walter Horton, James Cotton, Junior Wells on harmonica; Willie Dixon on bass; Otis Spann, Pinetop Perkins on piano; Pat Hare, Jimmy Rogers, and numerous other notables on guitar. Muddy Waters' best years both artistically and commercially were the 1950s. Many of the songs he performed have since became standards: Got My Mojo Working, Hoochie Coochie Man, She's Nineteen Years Old, Just Make Love To Me, and Rolling and Tumbling have all become classic songs, frequently covered by bands from many genres. In the '60s Muddy Waters and other blues performers of his generation had been discovered and taken up by a new audience-young, white and middle-class that had been born of the folk music revival of the late 1950s and swelled even further a few years later by the British blues boom. In the following years Muddy Waters performed with the brilliant young harmonica player Paul Butterfield and guitarist Michael Bloomfield. In 1977, his long association with Chess ended, Muddy Waters signed with Blue Sky Records , a label operated by another of his young proteges, the guitarist and singer Johnny Winter, and over the next several years produced four spirited albums under Winter's sympathetic guidance. Muddy Waters won in his musican life uncounted W.C.Handy Awards and Grammy Awards, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Muddy Waters died on April 30, 1983, in his home in suburban Westmont Illinois.