Muddy Waters

Morgan "Muddy Waters" McKinley is considered the "father of modern Chicago Blues". His birth date and place are either April 4, 1913 in Jug's Corner, Issaquena County Mississippi or April 4, 1915 in Rolling Fork, Mississippi. Muddy's mother died three years after his birth. His grandmother, Della Grant, raised him. She gave him the nickname "Muddy" because he loved to play in the muddy water of the nearby Deer Creek. Muddy married Mabel Berry in 1932. She left Muddy three years later when Muddy's first child was born (the child's mother was Leola Spain). When he left for Chicago in 1943 he left another wife behind, Sallie Ann.

In Chicago, Muddy worked at a paper mill by day and played blues at house parties at night. He became popular and began to record songs for big companies like RCA, Columbia and Aristrocrat. In 1950 his career took off. His hits include "Hootchie Coochie Man", "Got My Mojo Working". His hit song "Rollin' Stone" influenced the name of a major music magazine as well as one of the most famous rock bands, The Rolling Stones.

Muddy earned six Grammys along with numerous other honors. He was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. In 2002 he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. The shack on Stovall Plantation where Muddy lived is now located at the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, Mississippi.

• bio. Muddy Waters
• Wikipedia
• PBS American Masters