Blues Guitar Muddy Waters

On April 4th, 1915 in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, McKinley Morganfield, later to be known as Muddy Waters, was born. After his mother died in 1918, he moved to ClarksdaleMississippi where he was raised by his grandmother. His father a farmer, he got his professional name because he loved to go fishing and often played in a muddy creek. But Muddy wanted to play the blues. That's all he thought about, how much he wanted to play the blues.

Influenced by bluesman Son House, he learned to play guitar and learned to play the blues by studying Robert Johnson records. He listened to Son play the blues, he listened to Robert Johnson play the blues. He was the leading promoter of Chicago blues in the fifties. He could soon play the blues with an electric guitar using sounds previously unheard of. Soon everybody wanted to hear Muddy play the blues.

Muddy moved to Chicago in 1943 got work in a paper mill. He soon got an electric guitar and began to play the blues locally. Muddy Waters signed with Aristocrat Records In 1946. His early Aristocrat Blues recordings did not make much of an impression at first… But Muddy Waters continued to play the blues in the local clubs while driving a truck six days a week. He played songs like Hoochie Coochie Man and Got My Mojo Workin'. He could play blues guitar with the best of them doing blues concerts far and wide. He toted his electric guitar and guitar amp all over the country entertaining people that loved his blues music. He gained quite a following and came to be known  far and wide as the Hoochie Coochie Man. 

When Aristocrat Records became Chess Records in 1948, Muddy Waters’ first single on the new label “Rollin’ Stone,” became a major blues hit. Later records such as “I Can’t Be Satisfied” and “I Feel Like Going Home” would secure his position as a major blues performer. It was clear that Muddy Waters could play the blues. Muddy played electric guitar on these recordings and writer/producer Willie Dixon on bass, with Little Walter on harmonica. Later his band included Otis Spann on piano, Jimmie Rodgers on second guitar, and Elgin Evans on drums.

Muddy Waters came to be known as one of the true Blues Guitar Greats, the Hoochie Coochie Man. He kept playing the blues right up until the day he died. Some where they are still playing his records like Rollin’ Stone, Catfish Blues, Gypsy Woman, Louisiana Blues, Jealous Hearted Man, Key to the Highway, A lot of people still listen to Muddy play the bluesThey Call Me Muddy Waters and all the rest. Wherever you are Muddy Waters, Play the Blues Muddy, Play the Blues. Most still think of him as the Hoochie CoochieMan.