HONORING MUDDY ' S LEGACY
Photo by Alan Grossman
B
ig Bill Morganfield carries his monumental legacy with the grace of a man who understands its significance. It’ s not just that he looks and sounds like his father. It’ s that he continues the path of playing blues as a means for spiritual uplift. Muddy Waters created a blues landscape that reached across time, geography, language and culture and his son has made sure that this gift lives on.
After producing five albums that demonstrated Bill’ s skill at crafting song
By Rosalind Cummings-Yeates
Big Bill Morganfield
collections that pay allegiance to blues history while at the same time expanding the genre, his latest CD, Blood Stains on the Wall( Black Shuck Records) is smashing blues charts with a masterful blend of slide guitar, raw emotion and blues spirit.
“ Those are some big shoes to fill. I can’ t fill the hole that’ s left, all I can do is put a little dirt in it,” said Bill about the legacy he inherited. When he was a kid growing up with his grandmother in Ft. Lauderdale, he had very limited knowledge about this paternal legacy and just how legendary his father was.“ I knew my dad made records and I knew he was good. I didn’ t know how good he was until I was 15,” explained Bill about his awareness of his dad’ s profession growing up.
Living in south Florida, where blues isn’ t a significant part of the music scene, Bill focused on sports and played basketball and ran track for his high school teams.“ I was very athletic. I ran real fast and jumped really high, I was pretty good,” he recalled. So good that he won a full basketball scholarship to Miami Christian University. Bill Morganfield might not have known a lot about the blues while he was growing up but he did know about the spirit that underscores authentic blues. He constantly studied the bible and planned to be a minister.“ I’ m very spiritual and very in tune with our Father. That’ s been my saving grace.“ He started his ministerial studies at Miami Christian University but when he experienced blatant racism on the campus, he decided to leave and transfer to Tuskegee University, where he majored in English and decided to become a teacher.
Bill graduated and started teaching middle school in Atlanta but little did he know, his blues bloodline was about to kick in and change the course of his life.“ When my dad died in 1983, I decided to do a tribute to him,” said Bill.“ I had a broken heart. There was so much that my dad and I couldn’ t talk about. Playing blues was the only thing I could do to get closer to him. I thought it would take a year and I’ d do one record. It took me six years but I was up for the challenge.”
Clearly, after listening to the seamless artistry of Blood Stain on The Wall, Bill is indeed up for the challenge. From the jaunty cover of Muddy’ s“ I Don’ t Know Why,” to the haunting riffs of the original title track, the range of styles and engaging delivery marks the CD as a blues essential. Bill spent years as a club and radio DJ in Atlanta and that experience is showcased by a smoothly sequenced album that commands listeners.“ I think that every CD should be like a musical program so that you don’ t push next and skip a song,” he said. All the songs should be strong enough so that people don’ t skip them.”
Other highlights include the heart tugging ballad that he wrote after his mother’ s passing,“ When You Lose Someone You Love”, an effervescent take on Jimmy Reed’ s“ Too Much” and the deep fried electric blues funk of“ Hold Me Baby,” which appeared on the Fox TV series Shots Fired.
When he first picked up the guitar, Bill had never planned on a blues career, he only wanted to connect with his father and do a tribute.“ I had to get really good to make my dad proud. I had been listening to R & B, dance and pop. All of sudden, I started buying only blues. I got into it so deep that I wanted to listen to it all. I went to the beginning and listened to the plantation recordings and then Robert Johnson. I tried to duplicate what I heard. I can hear anything and play it. I call it crazy ears. My dad had crazy ears, he could hear things nobody else could. I can hear things too. You can’ t play nothing until you hear it,” he said.“ I had a system of learning, I broke it down bar by bar. It took me three months to learn“ Walkin’ Blues.” That’ s how I learned to play old Delta blues.”
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18 illinoisentertainer. com june 2017