“The blues had a baby and they called it rock and roll.” ~ Muddy Waters

When he walked on stage and the crowd cheered wildly, I knew this was beyond special. Now, I would refer to this experience as transformative. 

1977, I was fourteen years old when I purchased a four dollar ticket at Swollen Head Records to see Muddy Waters at my high school in suburban Chicago. Fifty years ago, he was sixty four years old. The same age as I am now. For me he was as mesmerizing as any great musician. Regardless of his aging.. Koko Taylor was also on the bill with special guest Wille Dixon. 

I didn’t know anything about the blues other than unfamiliar names on song credits of my favorite Rolling Stones, Creem, Who, Led Zeppelin and other rock and roll records.

“The blues had a baby and they called it rock and roll.” ~ Muddy Waters

Next I saw Muddy again on the same concert bill with Eric Clapton and Johnny Winter. The following year I saw Chicago harmonica hero Junior Wells as a guest performer with Ronnie Wood and Kieth Richards (The New Barbarians tour). Rock music lead to the blues. I loved knowing the influence the blues made on 60’s British rock. The connection across an ocean between two different cultures. The Blues Brothers were another noteworthy portal to new songs and blues artists. Like a sponge, I soaked it all up.

The years passed by and I learned about various blues traditions: Piedmont blues, Texas blues, delta blues, hill country blues, desert Blues, Memphis blues and on. All from the same roots, each branch was an exploration. It was more than just music but anthropology. Learning the puzzle piece of migrations and diasporas. The music of migrants, the down trodden expressed in hope, celebration or despair. In 2014, returning from Jazz Fest New Orleans, a visit to Clarksdale, Mississippi, the birthplace of Muddy and home to the legendary crossroads. It  was both a pilgrimage and an education.

The first time I saw Jimmy Johnson in 1979, a classmate hired him for a backyard keg party. 

And that was the uniqueness of my Chicago. Blues music was everywhere. I met many keepers of oral stories. Those driven to pass down history to next generations. They dedicated their lives to the blues as musicians, super fans, disc jockeys, song writers, photographers, record labels, authors and promoters. The stories were informative for me to understand the big mosaic of ‘da blues’.

My Chicago neighborhood was home to Buddy Guy’s Legends, Chess Records, and a quick bike ride to The Chicago Blues Festival and The House of Blues. This is where I photographed many blues artists and furthered my connection to the music.

For a few years I volunteered at Chess Records museum mounting photo exhibits. Formally titled The Willie Dixon Blues Heaven Foundation, I read the biographies of the Chess Brothers, Buddy Guy, Willie, and Muddy from the books they sold. Chess was a blues mecca with visitors who came from around the world. My highlight was spending a day there while Paul Rogers of Bad Company visited with Willie’s widow Marie Dixon. 

The Rolling Stones have a particularly known connection with the Chicago blues. In one interview Keith shared that Chicago was his spiritual home. They recorded at Chess Records including a track titled 2120 South Michigan Ave, the street address of the studio. Mick, Keith an Ronnie famously sat in with Muddy in 1978 at The Quiet Knight and again in 1981 at The Checkerboard Lounge.. The last time I saw Jimmy Johnson in 2015, it was at Buddy Guy’s night club Legends. The Rolling Stones were discreetly in the corner watching Johnson’s show amongst fans after hanging out with Buddy himself. To witness this moment was indelible.

My wife, Lee and I moved to Spain in 2022. Here, in the country where the guitar was invented. This was my next chapter in my blues journey. Traditional Spanish guitar holds a special place for me. During college I saw Andre Segovia from the first row at Chicago Symphony Hall. He was 90 years old. I felt like I had witnessed musical history. And that same style of classical guitar, the Mexican laborers brought with them to the Mississippi delta when building the railroads. This is how the black migrant workers adopted the guitar in the earliest years of the blues. This is how I imagine completing a full circle history of the blues.