MUDDY WATERS

(Born April 14th, 1915: Died April 30th, 1983)

Muddy Waters was the chief of the post-world war II Chicago blues scene. He was a master artist who played slashing slide guitar. He sang with the tough, strong view of a man who had seen his share of good, and the evil in life. He also was a powerful song writer. He wrote songs no one could ignore, and was an incredible band leader, recording artist, and his performances on stage left all who came across him breathless.

Muddy Waters was born into a Mississippi Delta sharecropping family. When he was three, his mother died, and he was raised by his Grandma on Stovall’s Plantation. He got his nickname there because he loved to play by a muddy creek. He learned how to sing out in the cotton fields, and when he was 8 years old, he learned how to play the harmonica. He learned how to play the guitar when he was 17, and soon after, in 1941 he started recording. In 1943,Muddy Waters moved out of the Mississippi Delta to Chicago, where he quickly settled into the happening Chicago blues scene.

Muddy Waters had an honesty to his music that made it so no one could ever just overlook it. He used the blues as a tool to speak about people suffering, people celebrating, and the truth. This is why people think that one Muddy Waters is one of the greatest artists the blues has ever produced.