Three musicians from Mississippi are my Big Three of the Blues. They are Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, and Howlin Wolf. They have influenced each other and other musicians around the world. All three grew up in poverty in the delta which filled their music with the sorrowful, soulful sound of the Blues.
Muddy Waters was born in poverty in rural Mississippi in 1915. Though his real name is McKinley Morganfield, he earned the name given to him by his grandmother during youthful play in the muddy waters near her home. His blues started early when his mother died in his early childhood. His grandmother raised him on a plantation and he learned early the hard life of hunger and picking cotton. He channeled that pain through music first learning the harmonica and later learning the guitar in the great Delta blues tradition. Water’s style of the blues is distinctive in which he put all his pent up defeat and anger in his music. He was recorded in the 1940s on his plantation and this was when he may have realized he could be a real musician instead of living the frustrated life of a sharecropper. He took his musical dreams on the road and became one of the …show more content…
Johnson was born a few years earlier than Waters in Hazlehurst, Mississippi in 1911. Johnson lived a short 27 years, but he made a major musical impact. You might even consider him the Jimi Hendrix of Blues music though less is known of his life than Hendrix’s. What is known is that he recorded some influential music in 1936 -1937 that was later redistributed in the 1960s and gained him worldwide fame after his death. Most likely the artists and people of the Mississippi Delta like Muddy Waters were aware of Johnson’s talents well before the rest of the world. Like Muddy Waters who followed him, Johnson’s influence went far beyond the Delta. Famous Caucasian guitarist, Eric Clapton acknowledges Johnson’s major talent and impact as do many
Muddy Waters was born in poverty in rural Mississippi in 1915. Though his real name is McKinley Morganfield, he earned the name given to him by his grandmother during youthful play in the muddy waters near her home. His blues started early when his mother died in his early childhood. His grandmother raised him on a plantation and he learned early the hard life of hunger and picking cotton. He channeled that pain through music first learning the harmonica and later learning the guitar in the great Delta blues tradition. Water’s style of the blues is distinctive in which he put all his pent up defeat and anger in his music. He was recorded in the 1940s on his plantation and this was when he may have realized he could be a real musician instead of living the frustrated life of a sharecropper. He took his musical dreams on the road and became one of the …show more content…
Johnson was born a few years earlier than Waters in Hazlehurst, Mississippi in 1911. Johnson lived a short 27 years, but he made a major musical impact. You might even consider him the Jimi Hendrix of Blues music though less is known of his life than Hendrix’s. What is known is that he recorded some influential music in 1936 -1937 that was later redistributed in the 1960s and gained him worldwide fame after his death. Most likely the artists and people of the Mississippi Delta like Muddy Waters were aware of Johnson’s talents well before the rest of the world. Like Muddy Waters who followed him, Johnson’s influence went far beyond the Delta. Famous Caucasian guitarist, Eric Clapton acknowledges Johnson’s major talent and impact as do many