The Life of Muddy Waters Since the beginning of the 1800’s, blues has become one of the United States thriving musical genres. Essentially, blues music has its deep roots in African American history. The first two main types of blues songs known as field hollers and work songs originated on the southern plantations of the Mississippi Delta. While slaves were forced to take part harsh labor, they sang songs that reflected their struggles they were experiencing during that time period. Over the years many blues artist inspired the growth of the blues genre. One key figure that is often attributed to its great success is McKinley Morganfield, or famously known throughout his career as Muddy Waters. Waters was a famous blues singer, terrific guitarist, and powerful performer. He is notable for inflancing many other famous musicians including Otis Spann, Little Walter, Junior Wells, Fred Below, Walter Horton, Jimmy Rogers, James Cotton, Leroy Foster, Buddy Guy, Luther Johnson, Willie Dixon, Hubert Sumlin and Earl Hooker. Muddy Waters gave these and many more their first big break in music while …show more content…
After his mother died, Morganfield was sent to live with his grandmother at age three, on the Stovall Plantation. This is when Morganfield received his name “Muddy Waters” because he was always found playing at nearby muddy creeks. Waters started out on harmonica but by age seventeen he was playing the guitar at parties and fish fries, emulating two blues artists who were extremely popular in the south, Son House and Robert Johnson. "His thick heavy tone, the dark coloration of his voice and his firm almost stolid manner were all clearly derived from House, " wrote Guralnick in Feel Like Going Home, "but the embellishments which he added, the imaginative slide technique and more agile rhythms, were closer to Johnson." It was during this time that he began to receive recognition from other the