Page 56 - Blues Festival Guide Magazine 2013

year career, he never forsook his joy for keeping things dirty, as He wasn’t rich and he wasn’t well educated. But man
the last three Johnny Winter-produced albums he recorded before could he play that guitar and sing them blues as good
his death in 1983 attest. as any man living. I’m lucky enough to be able to say
he was my dad! I look at that particular picture and
“My dad use to call me Popa. If you read the book, wonder if he had any idea of the impact he would have
Can’t Be Satisfied, you will find me in there as Popa − it on music all over the world. Indeed, from generation to
was a name my father gave me because I looked so generation they all learned from him and the music he
much like him. My dad always made sure we never left behind. Like all that knew him just a little and all
went hungry or needed anything. One of my fondest that knew him a lot, I miss McKinley Morganfield aka
memories was of my dad adopting a collie dog for Muddy Waters aka my ‘daddy. ’“
me. He went through so much to do that. When I was - William “Big Bill” Morganfield (son)
younger, I didn’t understand the meaning of, ‘I still can’t
be satisfied.’ Now I know where my dad was coming from
because no matter how I try, I still can’t be satisfied. I will
not accept failure. It’s not an option for me.”
- Larry “Mud” Morganfield (eldest son)

Early in his recording career for Chess Records, after he’d
switched from the acoustic guitars he played in the Delta to
the electrified instruments the tempo of Chicago’s urban life
demanded, Waters used acoustic arch top guitars with D’Armond
Rhythm Chief pickups screwed in place and then graduated to
a Gold Top Les Paul. He also likely used a small amplifier −
like a Gibson GA-5 − which, when turned up loud and tickled
by a signal from the D’Armond or P-90s, created rich, singing
harmonic distortion.

As a young man, McKinley Morganfield aka Muddy
Waters took inspiration from the playing styles of
Robert Johnson and Son House, combining the
former’s slide technique with the latter’s dark tones. “I
stone got crazy when I saw somebody run down them
strings with a bottleneck,” Waters later said. “My eyes Muddy Waters (Rt) was recorded by Alan Lomax for the Library of
Congress with fiddler Henry “Son” Simms (Lt). Circa early 1940s
lit up like a Christmas tree and I said that I had to learn.” Photo from Middle Tennessee University/John Work Collection
For slide, a technique at which Waters was an absolute
master, he wore a metal slider on the pinky of his left hand. He • At Newport 1960: This famed concert introduced Waters
usually played slide in open A or open G and finger picked on his to white audiences. The set includes such signature songs
classic early singles. Check out “Sail On,” a song also known as as “(I’m Your) Hoochie Coochie Man,” “I Feel So Good,”
“Honey Bee,” for a tutorial in his jittery, piercing approach. For and “Got My Mojo Working,” plus one of Muddy’s greatest
that matter, all of Waters’ albums offer stone insights for anybody bands, with pianist Otis Spann, harmonica man James Cotton
interested in traditional Chicago blues guitar tones, rhythms, and guitarist Pat Hare.
arrangements and songwriting. Here are five essential titles: • Folk Singer: To cash in on the folk revival, Leonard Chess had
Muddy make an acoustic album. Waters upped the game
• Down on Stovall’s Plantation: His First Recordings: Waters’ by bringing in a young Buddy Guy to play crackling lead
first sides were cut in his plantation cabin just outside of guitar. With Willie Dixon holding down the bottom on bass
Clarksdale, Mississippi for the Library of Congress in 1941 and Waters’ voice gliding over the spare instrumentation, this
by musicologist Alan Lomax. These primal tracks displayed album is a work of raw, inspiring genius.
his raw acoustic Delta style and helped inspire Waters’ move • Hard Again: Gibson Firebird firebrand Johnny Winter stepped
to Chicago two years later to seek his musical fortune. in to produce this bare-knuckled comeback for his idol.
“I think of the picture that I saw of my father sitting • The Anthology (1947–1972): One big Chess-career spanning
on a porch in Mississippi on Stovall’s Plantation right dose of classic Mud, from 1948s gorgeous, “I Can’t Be
after recording ‘Walkin’ Blues’ for Alan Lomax. He had Satisfied,” to 1974’s double-entendre driven, “Can’t Get No
no shoes on his feet and no fancy clothes on his back. Grinding,” with a slew of other hits and killer album tracks
along the way

54 Blues Festival Guide 2013