Born in a sharecropper’s shack on a Mississippi plantation, McKinley Morganfield—later renowned as Muddy Waters—would forge a career as a bluesman who would conquer the world. Revered as a titan of the blues and beloved as a man, Muddy’s struggle from the cotton fields to international acclaim is one man’s extraordinary story, but it also encompasses the history of popular music.

Battling to survive within the deprivation and subjugation of the segregated South, Muddy stubbornly clung to his belief that one day he would make the world take note. Influenced by blues giants Son House and Robert Johnson, he constructed his first guitar out of a box and a stick and went on to rock the local juke joints with his brand of searing slide guitar and powerhouse vocals.

In 1943 Muddy boarded the Illinois Central for the promise of Chicago. Amid the poverty and violence of the South Side ghetto, Muddy’s brand of acoustic country blues seemed out of sync with the brash vitality of postwar urban existence. Then he electrified his guitar. Muddy’s innovative new sound pioneered the development of amplified Chicago blues and spearheaded the onslaught of rock ’n’ roll and subsequent popular music. He so inspired Mick Jagger and Keith Richards that they named their band after one of Muddy’s songs. The Beatles, Eric Clapton, Chuck Berry, Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix have all named Muddy Waters as a major influence.

This is a very personal saga. Sit in on virtually all of Muddy’s recording sessions, rollick with him in juke joints and ghetto taverns, travel with his band on the road, visit his home and family, hear the anecdotes of his bandmates and musical apostles. Join his fascinating journey from a sharecropper’s shack to the White House, from a Mississippi roadhouse to concert stages around the globe.

Now available through Electro-Fi Records. Send $24 (North America) or
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