Muddy Waters Bio

Muddy Waters wan born on April 4, 1915. He was born McKinley Morganfield. The nickname Muddy Waters given to him in childhood in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, but from the age of three, when his mother died, he was raised by his grandmother in Clarksdale. He had a hard time growing up in the Delta region as did many other great Blues artists such as Charley Patton, Son House, Tommy Johnson and, especially Robert Johnson who Waters looked up to. He grew up working at the farm but at the age of thirteen he learned how to play the harmonica, which is what many Blues players learn to start playing music with. Four years later he picked up the guitar because he liked Son House's and Robert Johnson's music so much. Within a year Muddy mastered the bottleneck style of guitar just like the two he looked up to. His way of singing was so powerful and tightly constricted that he was characterized as one of the best Delta singers. He started off being a popular club singer in the mid 1940s and a few years later he became the most influential recording artist in the new amplified blues. Waters was visited by a team of Library Congress and recorded him for the Library's folksong archives. Providing the music for dancers at rough-and-tumble back country dances, in juke joints, and at picnics, houseparties and other rural entertainments he had become a very experienced bluesman. Then he moved to Chicago in 1943, but it was not easy at first he had tough times making it through. Muddy was able to use an amplified guitar when he worked. With this it gave his guitar a new, powerful, and striking edge that introduced a new sound that its listeners found very exciting, familiar yet more strong and powerful. From the start he dominated the music with his sound, repertoire, instrumentation. This gave him an outstanding sound and changed the Blues forever.