Muddy Waters
Father of Chicago, Architect of Electricity
I brought the Delta to Chicago and plugged it in.
They called me McKinley once, but the land and the waters gave me my name. I carried the blues up from the Mississippi dirt and ran them through a wire. Chicago heard something it never forgot. I sang of hard times and high stakes, with a slide guitar that howled like a man with a story to tell. Youngsters took my sound and ran with it — I don’t blame 'em. It was built to travel.
What I'm Into: bottleneck slide, Chess Records, harmonica wails, electric delta hum, slow-burn grooves
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