Featured Blues Artist For August 2017 – Muddy Waters

Each month we feature a Blues Artist of the Month.

Our Featured Blues Artist For August 2017 is Muddy Waters.

The Mississippi Blues Trail has placed a marker at the site of Muddy Waters’ House at Stovall Farm, outside Clarksdale, Coahoma County, Mississippi. Our page on Muddy Waters’ House is one of most frequently read pages on our MississippiBluesTravellers.com website.

The Mississippi Blues Trail marker and the Blues Hall of Fame marker at the Muddy Waters House site, Stovall Farms, outside Clarksdale, Mississippi.
The Mississippi Blues Trail marker and the Blues Hall of Fame marker at the Muddy Waters House site, Stovall Farms, outside Clarksdale, Mississippi.

Stovall Farm was where Alan Lomax made the first recordings of Muddy Waters in 1941. The Alan Lomax recordings of Muddy Waters at Stovall Form in 1941-1942 are compiled on the Complete Plantation Recordings, which is one of our Recommended Recordings.

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Alan Lomax – Some Sites Associated With Alan Lomax Sessions

Book cover - Alan Lomax: The Man Who Recorded The World by John Szwed
Book cover – Alan Lomax: The Man Who Recorded The World by John Szwed

Alan Lomax (1915 – 2002) played a major role in recording Delta blues artists from the 1930’s to 1978.

In the 1930’s he worked with his father, John Lomax. They made a trip through the southern United States in which they discovered and recorded Huddy Ledbetter in Angola State Penitentiary in Louisiana.

In 1941 and 1942, he made recording trips to Mississippi for the Library of Congress, which resulted in recordings of Muddy Waters, Son House, David “Honeyboy” Edwards and others.

He made the first recordings of Muddy Waters (1941-42) at Stovall Farm near Clarksdale.  He also made historic recordings of Son House in Tunica County 1941 and 1942. He also recorded David “Honeyboy” Edwards (1942) and other Delta bluesmen.

Here are some of the highlights of Alan Lomax’s career which relate to Mississippi and the Delta blues.  Continue reading Alan Lomax – Some Sites Associated With Alan Lomax Sessions