Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters & Rolling Stones
Birthname: McKinley Morganfield
Issaquena County, Mississippi, US
Born: April 4, 1913
Died: April 30, 1983 (Aged 70)
Westmont, Illinois
Mississippi Delta Blues
Genres: Blues, Chicago Blues, Delta Blues
Occupation(s): musician, songwriter, bandleader
Muddy Waters - I Be's Trouble
Years active: 1941 - 1982
Muddy Waters, McKinley Morganfield, grew up on Stovall Plantation near Clarksdale Mississippi.
When he was 17 he played guitar and the harmonica like local bluesartists Son House and Robert Johnson.
1943 he moved to Chicago to become a full-time professional musician.
Muddy Waters - Lonesome Day
1946 He recorded his first records for Columbia Records and Aristocrat Records.
1950's Muddy Waters band: Harmonica - Little Walter Jacobs, Guitar - Jimmy Rogers, Elga Edmons (Elgin Evans) - drum, piano - Otis Span
Muddy Waters - Ashgrove & interview
His mother died shortly after his birth. He was raised by his grandmother Della Grant. He loved to play in the muddy water of nearby Deer Creek. His grandmother named him Muddy. "Waters" was added much later. As a child of eight he picked cotton at the plantation and later drove tractors an a truck, plowed with the mule.
His first introduction to music was in church. At the age of seventeen he sold the horse for $15 and bought his first guitar.
August 1941 Alan Lomax went to Stovall, Mississippi to record various country blues musicians.
Lomax came back in 1942. Both sessions were released by Testament Records as Down On Stovall's Plantation.
Country Blues Plantation recordings
1943 He headed to Chicago. Arriving there was a momentous event in his life. He lived there for a relative short period. During the day he drove a truck and worked in a factory, performing at night.
Big Bill Broonzy gave him the opportunity to play before a large audience
1944 He bought is first electric guitar, formed his first electric combo. He said he had to use amplifiers to be heard in the rowdy clubs he played.
Muddy Waters gave the blues a pep, according to Willie Dixon.
