Muddy Waters

McKinley Morganfield, known professionally as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician often hailed as the 'father of modern Chicago blues'. First recorded on the Stovall Plantation in Mississippi by Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress in 1941, Waters joined the Great Migration north to Chicago in 1943.

In Chicago, Waters plugged an electric pickup into his acoustic guitar so he could be heard over noisy South Side club crowds. The resulting electrified, muscular rhythm section—featuring roaring amplified slide guitar, Little Walter's distortion-laced harmonica, and driving drums on Chess Records—became the blueprint for rock music. The Rolling Stones named their band after his 1950 hit 'Rollin' Stone'.