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Muddy Waters (1915-1983)
Muddy Waters was one of blues music's very best slide guitarists
and singers. He also pretty much invented the modern blues band
lineup and the musicians who played with his band reads like a Who's
Who of Chicago blues masters. Artists like Little Walter, Junior
Wells, Carey Bell, Otis Spann and Pinetop Perkins. Muddy Waters
was also a gentleman and an ambassador of the blues. Always willing
to lend a hand whether you were on your way up or down on your luck.
He was born McKinley Morganfield to a Mississippi sharecropper
family and got the nickname Muddy Waters as a child. His first musical
heroes were local musicians Son House and Robert Johnson. By the
time he was 17 he was working with a group called the Son Simms
Four and it was with this group and as a solo artist that he recorded
for Alan Lomax and John Work and the Library of Congress in 1941-42.*
Muddy came to Chicago in 1943 and quickly became a fixture on the
Chicago blues scene, where he switched from acoustic to electric
guitar in order to be heard in the noisy Chicago clubs. By the 1960s
Muddy had gained acceptance both at home and in Europe on the jazz
and folk circuits and was adding rock festivals to his gig schedule.
In the late 60s there was an unfortunate attempt at psychedelic
blues but by 1971 he was back on track with the release of a collection
of his older material - "They Call Me Muddy Waters." In
the 70s he began a collaboration with Johnny Winter. Muddy was inducted
into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1980. He died in his sleep
in 1983. In 1987 he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of
Fame. His face was even on a U.S. postage stamp as part of a series
honoring American blues artists.
" In 1941, Alan Lomax and John Work had gone to the Delta to
search for Robert Johnson, unaware that Johnson had been fatally
poisoned two years earlier. They wound up recording Son House for
the Library of Congress on that trip, and they also recorded Muddy
Waters singing and playing with a few of his buddies on Stovall's
Farms.
pat kreeft
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