Born McKinley Morganfield in Rolling, Mississippi in 1913, it was Muddy’s grandmother that gave him his nickname after noticing that her grandson’s favourite pastime was messing around in the mud. Mainly playing harmonica growing up, it wasn’t until age 17 that Muddy switched to the guitar, a Stella from Sears Roebuck for $2.50. Moulding his style on the likes of Charley Patton and Son House with their showmanship, slide guitar and preaching style of singing, no wonder Muddy was recommended to folklorist Alan Lomax by locals in 1941. Lomax came looking for Robert Johnson but learnt that he had been murdered a few years before so he headed to Stovall’s Plantation for Muddy Waters.
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THE MOODY BLUES
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