Big Bill Morganfield

Big Bill Morganfield confronted a distinctive pressure when he entered the blues realm long associated with his father. Muddy Waters had earned widespread reverence among enthusiasts across the globe, yet Morganfield waited until years after Waters died in 1983 before confronting that legacy directly. Once he resolved to follow the same path, he bought a guitar and spent the next six years teaching himself to play in tribute to the man born McKinley Morganfield.

His first public appearance came alongside Lonnie Mack at Center Stage in Atlanta, where an audience of one thousand responded with such enthusiasm that the experience ignited his commitment. Morganfield next assembled a contemporary blues ensemble, only to disband it after several months. Disappointed with the results, he withdrew from the stage to master traditional blues forms and to develop his own songwriting. Throughout this period he earned a living as a teacher, drawing on an English degree from Tuskegee University and a communications degree from Auburn University.

Those years of preparation culminated in the 1999 release of his debut album, Rising Son, which drew both popular and critical praise. Guitar Player observed that the record would surely have brought a smile to his father’s face. In 2000 the W.C. Handy Awards named Waters’s son Best New Blues Artist.

Morganfield tracked Rising Son in Chicago, the city where many of Waters’s own sessions had taken place. Bob Margolin, Waters’s former guitarist, produced the album and performed on it; several longtime Waters sidemen also participated, among them drummer Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, pianist Pinetop Perkins, and harmonica player Paul Oscher. Bassist Robert Stroger, previously a member of Sunnyland Slim’s band, rounded out the lineup.

On the follow-up album Ramblin’ Mind, Taj Mahal appeared on two tracks that also featured Billy Branch on harmonica; Mahal contributed his own composition “Strong Man Holler,” and the set included Waters’s song “You’re Gonna Miss Me.” Morganfield had grown up in Florida under his grandmother’s care before settling in Atlanta. He took part in a Kennedy Center tribute to his father in Washington, D.C., and retained possession of Waters’s guitars along with a touring amplifier.