When the Waters Got Muddy

When The Waters Got Muddy

Much has been said over the decades about a certain McKinley Morganfield, a man who greatly influenced the development of blues and later rock' n’ roll

You probably know him as Muddy Waters.

(Photo source:https://archive.culturalequity.org/person/morganfield-mckinley-muddy-waters)

Like every artist, Muddy had to have some sort of start. He started playing harmonica in his early teens and later purchased his first guitar at 17 from the proceeds of a horse sale. Arguably, his most significant push into pursuing music beyond the borders of Stovall, Mississippi, arrived at his front door in August of 1941, in his 28th year.

Who Was Alan Lomax?

In 1928, the Library of Congress established The Archive of American Folk Song (now known as The Archive of Folk Culture) to collect recordings and examples of folk music. The purpose was to ensure the preservation of folk traditions from across the United States and its territories. While the archive’s first collected materials were paper records and song sheets, the advent of recording technology presented the opportunity to gather aural examples of folk music.

In 1936, the organization’s first official employee was a young musician and ethnomusicologist named Alan Lomax. By then, he already had a history with the archive, having made contributions along with his father, John Avery Lomax. His work (which is extensive, to say the least) also introduced the world to legends such as Lead Belly and Jelly Roll Morton.

The Journeyman Collector

As part of his work, Lomax travelled across the US to record examples of folk music for the Archive. Part of his journey led him to Stovall, Mississippi and the artist later known as Muddy Waters. Lomax set up his recording equipment and recorded Morganfield performing his music (he would return in 1942). Fans of the movie Cadillac Records would have seen this encounter dramatized on-screen during the film’s first moments.

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According to an interview that Waters gave to Rolling Stone Magazine (via Wikipedia), just the fact that he could hear his music played back to him hit him like a bolt of lightning, with a sound comparable to the day's records.

Waters would later receive two pressings of the recordings and a check for $20 ($385 in today’s currency). He would play the pressings on repeat on a jukebox near his home. According to the same interview in Rolling Stone Magazine: “Just played it and played it and said, 'I can do it, I can do it'."

That was all he needed to take things to the next level. He eventually made his way to Chicago, recorded for Chess Records, and became one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. 

Had Lomax not visited Waters on that fateful day, Waters may not have had the nerve to go to Chicago. Without that, the Chicago Blues Scene may have been very different, and there would have been no British Blues Scene of the 1960s (arguably where he was most influential at the time) and no artists influenced by that collection of English blues-rockers. It would be a very different musical landscape. Imagine how Eric Clapton, Peter Green, The Rolling Stones (under a different name since they took it from one of Waters’ songs), Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, and a whole other bunch of musicians would have sounded if there were no Muddy Waters. Unfathomable!

A Collection For All To Hear

The original recordings made by Lomax were eventually released, first in 1966 as Down On Stovall’s Plantation on Testament Records and eventually as The Complete Plantation Recordings on Chess Records in 1993. The latter is currently available on streaming services, offering recorded music and oral interviews between Waters and Lomax. For any blues enthusiast or musicology nerd, this is a gold mine of history, catching Waters at the start of a noteworthy career.<iframe

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For those wanting to dig deeper into the rabbit hole, the Association of Cultural Equity manages the Lomax Digital Archive in partnership with the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. The site gives anyone with an internet connection access to John and Alan Lomax’s collection of audio recordings, photographs, radio programs, interviews, and much more. The Archive is another treasure trove for those wanting to dive into the world of traditional music in the US and abroad, including the original recordings Alan Lomax made of Muddy Waters.

Thanks to the work of people like the Lomaxes, we have access to this rich archive of American musical history. While Waters might have eventually made his way out of Mississippi without that fateful visit, we are lucky to have this snapshot of him at his beginnings, without the studio frills or a producer’s influence. It’s about as real as it gets, and we’re the better for hearing it.

By Kevin Daoust - instagram.com/kevindaoust.gtr