In Our CD Section: The Chess Box/Muddy Waters

McKinley Morganfield was born April 4, 1913 in Rolling Fork, Mississippi. By his late teens, he was performing at parties, playing blues in a style heavily influenced by bluesmen like Son House. Using a nickname given him by his grandmother, he adopted the stage name Muddy Waters and bounced between Chicago and Mississippi for a few years, recording a few songs that gained interest but no real notoriety. In the latter half of the 1940s, Waters signed with Aristocrat Records (later Chess Records), changed from acoustic to electric guitar, and finally found widespread success with 1948's "Rollin' Stone." By the late 1950's, he was touring Europe, influencing a slew of English bands, including Cream, Led Zeppelin, and the Rolling Stones (who took their name from Waters' signature song). He continued to perform and record for the next twenty-five years, until declining health in 1982 forced him to retire; he would pass away at his home in Illinois the following year. The Chess Box Muddy Waters covers the breadth of Waters' phenominal career from 1947 to 1972 on three discs, and includes previously unreleased titles in the mix. Muddy Waters once said, "I wanted to definitely be a musician or a good preacher or a heck of a baseball player. I couldn't play ball too good - I hurt my finger, and I stopped that. I couldn't preach, and well, all I had left was getting into the music thing. " Lucky for us, he did.

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