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Tonight at the Juke Joint we’re featuring Blues artist Muddy Waters. His sound personifies the original Bad Ass Black Man. My favorite songs are Champagne and Reefer, Hoochie Coochie Man, And Mannish boy. He did some things with the guitar that opened the door for Rock N Roll and much more. His sound has the soul of the Jim Crow black south. I feel like my Name is Sammy Lee Cooper (My Grand Father) when I listen to this.

American singer and guitarist Muddy Waters may have been born in Mississippi, but he defined Chicago blues with songs like “I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man.”

Synopsis

Muddy Waters was born McKinley Morganfield on April 4, 1915, in Rolling Fork, Mississippi. Waters grew up immersed in the Delta blues, and was first recorded by archivist Alan Lomax. In 1943, he moved to Chicago and began playing in clubs. A record deal followed, and hits like “I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man” and “Rollin’ Stone” made him an iconic Chicago blues man.

Early Life

Muddy Waters was born McKinley Morganfield on April 4, 1915, in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, a rural town on the Mississippi River. He was given the moniker “Muddy Waters” because he played in the swampy puddles of the Mississippi River as a boy. His father, Ollie Morganfield, was a farmer and a blues guitar player who separated from the family shortly after Waters was born. When Waters was just 3 years old, his mother, Bertha Jones, died, and he was subsequently sent to Clarksdale to live with his maternal grandmother, Delia Jones.

Waters began to play the harmonica around the age of 5, and became quite good. He received his first guitar at age 17, and taught himself to play by listening to recordings of Mississippi blues legends such as Charley Patton. Although Waters spent countless hours working as a sharecropper at a cotton plantation, he found time to entertain folks around town with his music. In 1941, he joined the Silas Green Tent Show and began to travel. As he began to gain recognition, his ambition grew. Then, after Alan Lomax and John Work, archivists/researchers for the Library of Congress Field Recording project caught wind of Waters’s unique style, they sought him out to make a recording. The songs “Can’t Be Satisfied” and “Feel Like Going Home,” were among his first recorded.

Chicago and Mainstream Success

In 1943, Muddy Waters finally picked up and headed to Chicago, Illinois, where music was shaping a generation. The following year, his uncle gave him an electric guitar. It was with this guitar that he was able to develop the legendary style that transformed the rustic blues of the Mississippi with the urban vibe of the big city.

Working at a paper mill by day, Waters was sweeping the blues scene by night. By 1946, he had grown so popular that he had begun making recordings for big record companies such as RCA, Colombia and Aristocrat. (He landed a deal with Aristocrat with help of fellow Delta man Sunnyland Smith.) But his recordings with Aristocrat received little recognition. It wasn’t until 1950, when Aristocrat became Chess Records, that Waters’s career really began to take off. With hits like “I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man” and “Got My Mojo Working,” his sensual lyrics peaked interest in the young crowds of the city. “Rollin’ Stone,” one of his singles, became so popular that it went on to influence the name of the major music magazine as well as one of the most famous rock bands to date.