10 Muddy Waters

The man who electrified the blues – literally and metaphorically

As the father of modern Chicago Blues, it’s hard to overstate the importance of Muddy Waters in the development of blues music as we know it. After he had grown up playing acoustically in the rural South, Muddy’s sound evolved as he moved northwards, where he would play at juke joints located near Chicago’s many factories. In order to be heard over the industrial hubbub, he very pragmatically decided that he would need to amplify his guitar. Thus, Muddy electrified the blues – both literally and metaphorically speaking – and changed its sonic trajectory once and for all.

Prior to this, he’d developed an aggressive right-hand technique from playing loud and hard, and this still played a major part in his sound after going electric, but the introduction of an amp and the change of guitar gave him access to extra tonal possibilities. Gritty and expressive, early records like The Real Folk Blues bridged the gap between the rural tradition and Muddy’s burgeoning urban blues identity, before 1969’s double LP, Fathers And Sons, really served to define the sound of modern Chicago – as well as the sound of the now iconic Chess Records.

As for his influence, the long list of artists who have covered Muddy’s tunes speaks for itself: Led Zeppelin, The Yardbirds, The

Animals, Johnny Winter, The Allman Brothers Band, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Gary Moore, The Black Crowes, the New York Dolls and many more have all paid homage. The Rolling Stones even got the inspiration for their band name from Muddy’s song of the same name.

Profundity in simplicity

From Got My Mojo Working and Mannish Boy to Spoonful and I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man, his body of work has truly stood the test of time, and learning some of those canonical licks, slide lines and foot stomping rhythms will be a necessity – nay, a rite of passage – if you ever plan to play at a local blues jam night.

His signature style demonstrates one of the fundamental principles of blues music: that there can be profundity in simplicity. Muddy’s playing was not about cramming in as many notes as possible. In fact, he got a whole career’s worth of mileage out of the five notes that make up the Minor Pentatonic scale, with the addition of the flat 5th – or ‘blue note’ – that transforms the shape into the Minor Blues Scale with its deliciously sour twang.

Melodically speaking, Muddy’s music draws heavily from the call and response tradition, which has its roots in gospel music. Often, he would answer a vocal ‘call’ with a complimentary, exclamatory or inquisitivesounding response played on the guitar. A great example can be heard right at the beginning of Mannish Boy, where Muddy’s soulful “Oh yeah” vocalisations get answered with bright, trebly and vibrato-laden guitar phrases in response. It’s simply a blues masterclass in just a handful of notes.

Although we’ll never possess the fingers or the soul of Muddy Waters, getting the right kind of guitar to emulate those razor-sharp tones will be important if you want to approximate his sound. For the majority of his career, he favoured a 1957 Fender Telecaster with two single-coil pickups and a medium-sized tube amp. Originally white, Muddy’s favourite Tele was customised by dunking it in Candy Apple Red paint and bolting on a new rosewood neck. He christened it ‘The Hoss’ and played the heck out of it until his death in 1983.

The everlasting image of Robert Johnson comes from the classic 1961 album King Of The Delta Blues Singers. It’s an above-shot of Johnson sitting in an old wooden chair while hunched over his guitar. The shadow cast toward the bottom of the image is harrowing enough to set the vibe of an album that includes bewitching classics Cross Road Blues, Terraplane Blues, Walkin’ Blues, and Kind Hearted Woman Blues. With titles like that, what’s obvious is that Johnson, while inventive and ahead of his time, liked to keep it simple.

Beyond that image and the more jovial black-and-white picture from 1936 that you might have seen via Johnson’s Wikipedia page, the reality is that we know very little about his life. Sure, Johnson was iconic – a master of the Delta blues, and one of the most impactful guitarists ever. Hell, he might even have been the first ever rock star. At least, that’s what the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame describes him as.

Setting aside the mystery, though, what we do know is that Johnson was a roving six-stringer akin to a walking jukebox.

Ramblin’ man

Residents of New York City, for example, know these types of performers as ‘buskers’, and Johnson was a damn good one. Be it local saloons, weekend dances, or seedy street corners, Johnson spread his message via guitar the only way he knew how, and, in the process, gained a cult following. Though any following he might have claimed didn’t come via recording sessions, as he only participated in two, one in San Antonio, Texas, in 1936 and another in Dallas, Texas, in 1937.

These songs, which can be found on King of The Delta Blues Singers and the subsequent Vol. II are all we have. Beyond that, the man with a guitar, who spent most of his life in the Mississippi Delta, and died ominously, is a mystery to be reconstructed by those fascinated enough to do so. That aside, as evidenced by our slim pickings as far as recorded work, Johnson could play as well as anyone. Some even say he sold his soul to the Devil at a local crossroads in a rather sad attempt at success, though his skill shows that the Devil probably would have asked for pointers!

Luckily, to play like Robert Johnson, you won’t need to sell your soul, nor will you need to die ambiguously. But you will need to brush up on a wide range of styles, including raw country slides and some basic jazz licks. Don’t be afraid to incorporate Chicago boogie, swing, and ragtime, along with lyrical licks that aim to tell stories via sound, meaning your guitar should be your accompanying vocalist rather than just a supporting instrument.

“JOHNSON MIGHT HAVE BEEN THE

FIRST EVER ROCK STAR”

Nicknamed ‘The Velvet Bulldozer’ and standing somewhere between 6 ft 4 in and 6 ft 7 in, Albert King was a literal giant of the blues and a man of seriously unique musical talent. Against his considerable stature, his guitars often looked like miniscule toys, but he wrenched from them some of the biggest and boldest notes you’re ever likely to hear.

V’s up

As a left-handed player in the mid-20th century, King would hardly have been spoiled for choice when it came to instruments designed specifically for his needs, particularly early on in his career. But he got around this issue of accessibility by flipping a regular right-handed Gibson Flying V upside-down, dropping into some unorthodox open tunings and figuring out an approach that was altogether his own.

Because of the way his upside-down guitar was strung, with the bass notes at the bottom and the treble notes at the top, he couldn’t fret chords in quite the same way as his righthanded contemporaries and he chose not to make rhythm a focus of his playing. Instead, King doubled down on dramatic lead playing, making his guitar scream, holler and sing with his trademark overbending technique. Unlike most blues guitarists, who mine emotional nuance from a mixture of mostly quarter-, half- and full-tone bends, King went big, often bending his notes one-and-a-half or two tones wide. Really, it’s enough to make your fingers bleed just thinking about it! Certainly, his muscular brawn played a part in this ability, but he also benefited from an advantage known only to lefties…

Left-handed benefits

With the highest pitched strings at the skyward edge of the fretboard, he was able to pull down on them to execute bends, rather than pushing them upwards, as is common practice for right-handed players. The hand is naturally much stronger when working in this direction, making it much easier for him to incorporate the intense, stinging howl of huge pitch bends into his guitar vocabulary.

Interestingly, King’s bends and even his wide, slow vibrato often teetered ever so slightly on the sharp side, giving his playing an extra searing quality that hits like a dagger right through the heart.

But the idiosyncrasies don’t end here, because King also chose not to use a pick. Instead, he relied on his thumb and index finger to pluck and pinch the notes. Again, this added to the gut-wrenchingly raw and physical way he expressed himself on the guitar.

His impact on those who’ve come since has been as immense as those hallmark bends. Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan were two of his biggest fans and Eric Clapton even ‘borrowed’ his Oh, Pretty Woman solo and used it in Cream’s Disraeli Gears album opener, Strange Brew.

Although many guitarists have tried to cop a little bit of Albert in their playing style, the key to his unique sound remains largely ‘protected’ by the unconventionality of his set up, making him a true original and a true king of the blues.

Technique: Raw, powerful attack with plenty of huge bends – usually a tone and half or two tones wide

Scales: Minor Pentatonic, particularly the ‘Albert King Box’

Gear: Gibson Flying V, Roland JC-120, MXR Phase 90

Album: Born Under A Bad Sign Track: Born Under A Bad Sign

Born in rural Louisiana in 1936, George ‘Buddy’ Guy first learned to make music on a homemade two-string diddley bow, before getting his hands on a Harmony acoustic guitar and embarking in earnest on his journey to become one of the most loved blues guitarists of all time.

As a young man, Buddy travelled from the country to the city, working for a time in Baton Rouge, before moving to Chicago in the late ’50s. There, he met and was mentored by blues innovators like Muddy Waters, B.B. King and Lightnin’ Slim, and he became a house guitarist at Chess Records.

While the label didn’t fully appreciate Buddy’s wicked chops and natural charisma, Brits like Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton and The Rolling Stones idolised him, and American guitar stars like Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan would take notes on how to really wield a Stratocaster from the bombastic

Mr. Guy.

Besides his trademark blonde and polka dot models, the most effective weapon in Buddy’s arsenal is his personality, and it’s often prudent to expect the unexpected, especially when it comes to his live performances. He’s great at working changes in tempo and dynamics into his arrangements to ensure that his listeners are always kept on their toes. From fleet fingered flurries to slow, stinging bends that ache with real emotion, Buddy is a master communicator and there’s little room for misinterpretation when it comes to the meaning behind his melodies and solos.

Although the blues might typically be associated with the expression of hurt and despair, Buddy’s take on the genre has also always been tinged with light-heartedness, wit and even a hearty smattering of tongue-incheek humour. Because he often leans towards the lighter side of life, you’ll find lots of major pentatonic licks in his tunes as well as the staple minor pentatonic wizardry that makes for most traditional bluesers’ bread and butter.

But, purely in terms of gear, if you want to sound like Buddy, then you really will need to get your hands on a Strat, or at the very least, a guitar with the same configuration of three single coil pickups and a five-way switch. Buddy typically employs quite a clean tone, relying on the natural breakup of a cranked tube amp for more distorted moments. He doesn’t use a lot of toys, but will break out his signature Dunlop BG95 Cry Baby Wah pedal when he wants to get funky and dial in some ultra-expressive open vowel sounds for his solos, as in the 2022 track, I Let My Guitar Do The Talking.

When you boil it down, Buddy’s life story is literally stuff of blues legend. Many consider him to be the last great bluesman and his music is the common thread that ties the genre’s past to its present. Now, well into his eighties, his decades of experience can teach us many things. But perhaps the most important lesson of all we can take from the inimitable Buddy Guy is this: if you’ve got a personality, then don’t be afraid to use it!

“THE STUFF OF BLUES LEGEND”

Inspired by the likes of Peter Green and Eric Clapton, Gary Moore began his guitar playing career in the late 1960s when he joined Dublin-based blues rock outfit Skid Row. He then transitioned to playing hard rock and metal, before returning to his blues roots in the late ’80s and early ’90s. With him, he brought a contemporary highly saturated guitar sound, his trademark aggressive vibrato and a whole lot of emotion. He helped to reinvigorate the blues during this period and paved the way for next generation artists like Joe Bonamassa.

Moore was renowned for many things: his melodic sensibilities, his powers of expression, his ability to hit jaw dropping speeds and his

knack for conjuring seemingly endless sustain – as you’ll hear in just about every live version of the classic track Parisienne Walkways.

Although you’ll find lots of impressive legato, rapid trills and hammer-on and pull-off flurries in his playing, Moore’s ‘note’ is so instantly recognisable because of the depth of feeling he was able to pour into it. When thinking about trying to sound like he did, it’s a good idea to focus on single notes and short phrases and try to play them with real feeling, emphasising the emotion that you’re trying to convey every time you make contact with the strings. Once you’ve got that down, you can change things up between slow and soulful and fast and furious to make your solos ooze with variety just like Gary’s.

Since the words ‘Clapton is God’ first appeared as spray-painted graffiti across a wall in Islington, London, in the mid-’60s, it’s been painfully apparent that as far as amalgamating rock and blues together via six-strings, few have done it better than Eric Clapton. When those sacred words first immortalised Clapton as a halcyon deity amongst mere mortals, it was during his John Mayall and Cream era, when some of the most dynamic British blues ever heard were emitted from his fingertips and reverberated from his strings, which, at the time, were usually adhered to a 1960 Gibson Les Paul known as the ‘Beano’ guitar, and a ’64 technicolour Gibson SG known as ‘The Fool’.

From the first ‘Clapton is God’ sighting in ’66 onward, such proclamations were scrawled across bathroom stalls and construction sites, and in rock’s back pages. That shouldn’t surprise anyone given the sounds Clapton was creating. In retrospect, albums like 1966’s Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton and anything he did with Cream were damn shocking at the time. Before Clapton – and a few other British souls – the idea of electric blues was more in line with the likes of Buddy Guy, B.B. King and Albert King, but Clapton changed the game.

With a Les Paul in hand, which Clapton plugged into a ’62 Marshall Bluesbreaker, he created songs like Steppin’ Out, and Hideaway with John Mayall, and Sunshine of Your Love with Cream. Not too shabby. If you’d like to give it go, it’s important to remember that while Clapton picked up a Strat in the ’70s, as we alluded to earlier, in his ’60s blues days he was a card-carrying Les Paul lover. So, if you want to dig into his blues roots, you’ll want to keep that in mind from the jump.

Pay special attention to Clapton’s phrasing, how he lays out solos, and how he injects loads of expressiveness, soulful, floaty, yet muscular vibrato, and translates the blues through the lens of pure emotive balladry – even if the song rocks hard on the surface. Beyond that, mix and match your pentatonics. Don’t rely too heavily on the minor scale; feel free to inject the major scale, too. To that end, don’t hold back after you’ve dimed your amp. Clapton never played it safe regarding solos and effortlessly flexed his skill. Be sure to let it all hang out. But most importantly – be a student. To embody Clapton, you need to be a scholar of the blues. Let passion guide you!

“TO EMBODY CLAPTON, YOU NEED TO BE A SCHOLAR OF

THE BLUES”