Muddy Woters

Muddy Waters performing live at the University of Oregon in 1971. A postwar Chicago blues scene without the magnificent contributions of Muddy Waters is absolutely unimaginable. From the late '40s on, he eloquently defined the city's aggressive, swaggering, Delta-rooted sound with his declamatory vocals and piercing slide guitar attack. When he passed away in 1983, the Windy City would never quite recover. Like many of his contemporaries on the Chicago circuit, Waters was a product of the fertile Mississippi Delta. Born McKinley Morganfield in Rolling Fork, he grew up in nearby Clarksdale on Stovall's Plantation.

Arguably the heaviest bluesman ever, Muddy Waters literally electrified the Chicago blues world with the 1948 release of his first single on Chess Records ("I Can't Be Satisfied"). By taking the Robert Johnson and Son House-inspired acoustic Delta blues that he had played in Mississippi and firing it up with raw amplification, he created the blueprint for generations of Chicago blues players. Bob Margolin played guitar in Muddy Waters' band for seven years in the '70s, absorbing his music first-hand. In this DVD, he shares the secrets of Muddy's solo guitar and ensemble work and covers slow blues, boogie blues, slide guitar and guitar bass lines in standard and open tunings. Bob even plays an original song that he wrote as a tribute to his former mentor. Includes the songs: Blow Wind Blow · I Can't Be Satisfied · Rollin' and Tumblin' · Big Leg Woman · Kind Hearted Woman · and more. As a special bonus, this DVD includes rare performance footage of Muddy.