Take 5 With Muddy Waters

Muddy Waters (real name McKinley Morganfield) was one of the greatest of all the post-World War II blues artists associated with the city of Chicago. I was fortunate to see him perform several times in my life. Born in Mississippi, he moved to Chicago and electrified the deep Delta Blues. His music influenced countless other blues artists as well as rock artists. One of the most famous rock bands, as well as music magazines, took their name from one of his records, "Rolling Stone." Here is a small selection of his musical legacy with a focus on his pre-1950 recordings.

One of his first recordings made for the Library of Congress was "Country Blues." Reflecting the influence of Son House and Robert Johnson, it is a brilliant country blues performance.

After he moved to Chicago, Muddy made some recordings for Columbia that went unissued for some time. His first issued recordings were not even under his own name including a cover of a Robert Lockwood, Jr. recording. Circumstances had Sunnyland Slim bring him to Leonard Chess at Aristocrat Records where he started his legendary recording career. one of the early recordings he made with Slim was "Gypsy Woman."

Next up is a song Muddy learned from Robert Lockwood, Jr.  It is a cover of a recording Lockwood made for Bluebird, "Mean Red Spider." muddy first recorded this with James 'Sweet Lucy 'Carter under whose name it was released. Here is the recording Muddy made for Aristocrat.

Next up is a song that gave Peter Guralnick the title of one of his first books," I Feel Like Going Home."

The last selection of this brief playlist is "Burying Ground" with Big Crawford on bass. Big Crawford was the bassist on many of Muddy's early recordings

 I will be presenting Muddy Waters in the weeks to come.