Big Road Blues

Show Notes:

Muddy Waters was a larger then life figure who became a star in the late 1940’s and remained a huge presence on the blues landscape until his death in 1983. When Muddy arrived in Chicago from the Delta in 1943 he was just another struggling musician trying to establish himself. Pete Welding described his early years: “After several years of playing to slowly increasing audiences, first at houseparties and later in small taverns dotted throughout Chicago’s huge, sprawling South and West Side black-belt slums, he had begun to record.” In this feature we start by going back to the early years, not only playing Muddy’s early recordings but spotlighting the many recordings that find Muddy backing his friends and contemporaries. The bulk of Muddy’s session work spans from 1946 to the early 1950’s becoming much less frequent as his star rose. Still even in later years Muddy was always willing to back friends and band mates like Otis Spann, Little Walter, Luther Johnson and others.

In the early years he backed some of the city’s finest including Sunnyland Slim, Baby Face Leroy, Jimmy Rogers and Junior Well. Muddy made his first sides under his own name for Columbia as well as backing obscure artists like James “Beale Street” Clark and Homer Harris (the bulk of these sides remained unissued for decades). We begin the show by playing some of these records before moving on to his better known records for Aristocrat (which later became Chess).

In addition to hearing some of Muddy’s early efforts for the label including “I Can’t Be Satisfied” b/w”I Feel Like Going Home” (the latter was his first national R&B hit in 1948) we hear Muddy’s distinctive guitar backing Aristocrat artists such as Sunnyland Slim, Jimmy Rogers, St. Louis Jimmy, Little Johnny Jones and Baby Face Leroy.

Otis Spann helmed the piano chair in Muddy’s band for over fifteen years and Muddy returned the favor backing Spann on the albums “The Blues Never Die!” (as Muddy Rivers), “The Bottom of the Blues” and “The Blues Is Where It’s At.” He also backed Luther Johnson on two late 1960’s records, pops up with his band on “The Bluesmen of the Muddy Waters Chicago Blues Band” (as Main Stream) on the Spivey label and did some all-star group recordings with Howlin’Wolf, Bo Diddley and others on “The Super Super Blues Band” and “Super Blues.”

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