Thereafter, Waters began performing with friends at local house parties as well as fish fries, meanwhile developing an appreciation for the deep blues sounds that Delta bluesman Son House emitted from his guitar. Muddy fabricated his style from House's music and later borrowed ideas from Robert Johnson.
Waters was first recorded in 1941, for Alan Lomax. The folklorist was compiling songs for the Library of Congress. Two of the cuts were included on the Library's folk anthology album, "I Be's Troubled" and "Country Blues." Lomax would return to the plantation a year later to lay down more tracks with Waters.
Muddy Waters left the Mississippi Delta bound for Chicago in 1943. With the help of Big Bill Broonzy, he broke into the city's thriving blues scene. For some time, Waters played acoustic guitar behind John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson. In 1944 he began his assault on the electric guitar. This is when his reputation as a performer took shape. Muddy teamed up with Jimmy Rodgers on harp, Claude Smith on guitar, and then with Eddie Boyd on piano (later joined by Sunnyland Slim). At this time he was still devoted to the traditional Delta bottleneck style, but his sound was fatter, louder, and far more moving then before.
His initial recordings in Chicago were for producer Lester Melrose and Columbia Records in 1946. They featured Waters with a five-piece band (these would not be released until 1971). A year later he played in support of Sunnyland Slim on two Aristocrat sides titled "Johnson Machine Gun" and "Fly Right Little Girl." Waters and bass player Big Crawford recorded two songs, but producer Leonard Chess was not impressed with the results. Nonetheless in 1948 he invited them back to the studio. The duo cut "I Can't Be Satisfied" and "Feel Like Going Home" in a traditional Delta blues style. Waters's shivering guitar licks provided an exciting new edge to the session. Released by Chess as an Aristocrat single, the records entire stock sold in less then a day.
What ensued in the years 1951 to 1960 was the creation of the greatest collection of electric blues recordings ever produced. Defining the Chicago blues style during this classic period, Waters originals like "Long Distance Call," "Mannish Boy," "Got my Mojo Working," "She Loves Me," and "She's Nineteen Years Old" were complemented by songs by Willie Dixon such as "Hoochie Coochie Man," "I Just Want to Make Love to You," and "I'm Ready" among others. Waters's recordings and performances were equipped with extraordinary power by his voice, thick and rough. By this point he had all but quit playing the guitar.
Chess Records, formally Aristocrat, released his debut album, in 1958. It was a collection of Waters's hit singles titled The Best of Muddy Waters. That same year, he and his pianist, Otis Spann, embarked on a tour of England. The tour brought to light new audiences, both abroad and at home. White Folk Fans became fascinated with the blues, and after hearing of his success in England they sought out Muddy Waters records. These new audiences seemed to prefer the acoustic rural-flavored blues, as opposed to the riveting electric style that Waters perfected in the '50s.
Muddy Waters injected electricity into the blood of his new folk blues audience at the Newport Folk Festival in 1960. He and his high voltage band were on top of their game as they performed a fiery set that resulted in the live album Muddy Waters at Newport. This established a desire for the electric blues in those who attended the festival as well as new blues fans everywhere.
To capitalize on this new audience, Chess Records continued to promote Waters as a folk-blues artist in the '60s. Toward the end of that decade and in the dawn of the new, he released Fathers and Sons, They Call Me Muddy Waters (which was awarded the best ethnic/traditional recording Grammy in 1971), and The London Muddy Waters Sessions. Primarily white fans showing a continuing interest in down home blues purchased these albums.
The '70s saw the end of Waters's association with Chess Records and resurgence in his recording career. Signing with CBS/Blue Sky and his collaboration with producer-guitarist Johnny Winter resulted in Muddy's second Grammy for Hard Again in 1977. Nonstop touring in the '70s brought his music to audiences around the world. A US tour included performances at The White House for President Jimmy Carter as well as an exceptional performance of "Mannish Boy" captured in The Last Waltz, the Band's farewell concert documentary. Waters continued to create with Winters, enjoying critical and commercial success, the two would eventually perform cooperatively in the early '80s. The majority of their audiences were white blues or rock fans who came to pay homage.
Waters's final public performance
occurred suitably at an Eric
Clapton show in 1982. A heart
attack claimed the life of America's first modern bluesman in
1983, Waters was sixty-eight years old. Inducted into the Blues
Foundation Hall of Fame in 1980, prior to his death, he was then
elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.
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