Chicago · up here

Muddy
Waters

Stovall, Mississippi. The line runs north.

Muddy Waters at a microphone with an electric guitar, smiling sideways — Muddy Waters on stage in Paris, November 1976. Lionel Decoster · CC BY-SA 4.0

A worn red Fender Telecaster with a cream scratchplate standing upright in a glass case — Muddy Waters’ red Fender Telecaster, “The Hoss”, made about 1958, shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2019. Eden, Janine and Jim · CC BY 2.0

The Delta · down here: Stovall today. Above, a Chess label of 1962; in the field, “The Hoss”, his Telecaster of about 1958.

A boy named for the mud took a train north and plugged in. Punch the ticket and stand at every stop.

Cottonwood Plantation, near Rolling Fork

Born McKinley.
Named by the mud.

Two splashes and a letter make the name.

A blue Mississippi Blues Trail marker for Muddy Waters on a Rolling Fork street — The Mississippi Blues Trail marker in Rolling Fork, 2022, before the 2023 tornado. Chillin662 · CC BY-SA 4.0

The birthplace marker, Rolling Fork

His grandmother, Della Grant, called him “Muddy” because he loved playing in the mud as a baby; his playmates added “Water”, then “Waters”. His father, Ollie Morganfield, sharecropped near Rolling Fork and played at local blues events.

Sources give his birth year as 1913, 1914 or 1915; Alan Lomax wrote down 1913 when he interviewed him in 1941.

A Mississippi Blues Trail marker in the middle of town: free to see at any time. A tornado destroyed the first marker in March 2023; a new one went up that November.

Field notes

Stovall, August 1941

The Library of Congress
came to his door.

A ten-inch 78 in a paper sleeve.

A young Alan Lomax playing guitar on a stage — Alan Lomax at the Mountain Music Festival, Asheville, early 1940s. Unknown photographer · Public domain

He spent most of his first thirty years in a house on this site, on the Stovall Plantation. He drove a tractor and ran a juke joint from his home.

The Library first issued two of the songs on a ten-inch 78, under his real name, McKinley Morganfield.

Field notes

Where the house stood, Stovall

Two roadside markers stand where the house was, in open farmland. The house itself is in the Delta Blues Museum in town.

The brick freight depot that houses the Delta Blues Museum — The Delta Blues Museum in the old freight depot, Clarksdale, 2017. VitaleBaby · Public domain

The Delta Blues Museum · Clarksdale

The restored house from Stovall went on show at the museum in 1996. The museum moved into the old railroad freight depot in 1999 and added a Muddy Waters wing in 2012.

Monday to Saturday 10am–5pm, last entry 4.30pm. Adults $15; Coahoma County residents free.

Field notes

Delta Blues Museum

The Delta Blues Museum

Clarksdale · Mon–Sat 10am–5pm · adults $15

The cabin from Stovall, inside the old freight depot, and the Muddy Waters wing.

Plan a visit

Shack Up Inn

Clarksdale, Mississippi

Sleep in the Delta outside Clarksdale, with live music on its own calendar. Guests must be 25 or over; no children. Pictured: the farmland at Stovall.

Check rooms

May 1943

One ticket north.
8 stops.

He leaves Stovall and takes a train to Chicago, finds work and plays rent parties. Punch each stop to stand where it happened.

DELTA— good for one passage —CHICAGO

No stops punched yet.

Acoustic. Lean in, it is quiet.

Nobody could hear him.

In Chicago he goes electric: a relative gives him his first electric guitar, and an acoustic could not be heard in the noisy clubs.

Field notes

He records for Aristocrat, the Chess brothers’ label, and the release sells out several pressings.

From 1957 to 1967 Leonard and Phil Chess ran their label from this building; Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Howlin’ Wolf and Chuck Berry recorded here.

Field notes

The studio drew the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds to record here in the mid-1960s. The marker records that the Rolling Stones took their name from his early record “Rollin’ Stone”.

Into the Rolling Stones’ World →

Field notes

The narrow front of the Chess Records building on South Michigan Avenue — 2120 South Michigan Avenue, 2006. Reading Tom · CC BY 2.0

Willie Dixon’s Blues Heaven Foundation

Chess Records building tour

Near South Side, Chicago · Tue–Sat 12–4pm · adults $25

A guided tour of 2120 South Michigan Avenue. Book by email or phone; confirmations come within about two days.

Book a tour

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A ten-storey multicoloured portrait of Muddy Waters on the side of a Loop building — Eduardo Kobra’s Muddy Waters mural on State Street, 2024. Nairn McWilliams · CC BY-SA 2.0

North Kenwood, 1954–1973

The band in the basement.
The man ten storeys high.

A tree-lined residential street of brick two-flats with cars parked along the kerb — Lake Park Avenue, North Kenwood, 2024: the street, a short walk from the house, which is private. Warren LeMay · CC BY-SA 4.0

4339 South Lake Park Avenue · private

He lived here from 1954 to 1973; it was the only home he owned in Chicago. The family lived on the first floor and the band rehearsed in the basement; Otis Spann and Howlin’ Wolf were among those who stayed upstairs.

Not open: the family is raising money to make it the MOJO Museum. See it only from the pavement. Chicago made it a landmark in 2021; it is to be the MOJO Museum.

Field notes

Muddy Waters in a white suit laughing on stage beside a harmonica player — Muddy Waters with James Cotton on harmonica, Toronto, June 1978. Jean-Luc Ourlin · CC BY-SA 2.0

The Muddy Waters mural, State Street

Eduardo Kobra’s portrait is about 100 feet, ten storeys, tall. The city dedicated it on 8 June 2017, the first day of that year’s Chicago Blues Festival.

Near State and Washington: free to see from the street.

Field notes

Half-length portrait of Langston Hughes facing left — Langston Hughes, 1942. Jack Delano (Farm Security Administration) · Public domain

Newport, Rhode Island

3 July 1960.
A poem on a telegram form.

The day after a riot at Freebody Park, his band closes the Newport blues session on 3 July 1960 with a song Langston Hughes wrote that day; Chess releases the set as an LP.

Hughes, on the festival’s board, wrote it on the back of a Western Union form. Otis Spann sang it.

Field notes

End of the line

Westmont, 1983.
Then the city threw a festival.

Muddy Waters’s gravestone with flowers at Restvale Cemetery — The grave at Restvale Cemetery, Alsip, 2004. Bob Agee · CC BY-SA 4.0

He died in his sleep at his home in Westmont, Illinois, on 30 April 1983. Restvale lists McKinley “Muddy Waters” Morganfield among the blues musicians buried there.

A working cemetery south-west of the city: visit quietly, in daylight. During the Blues Festival a Graveyard Blues bicycle tour rides between these cemeteries.

Field notes

The steel ribbons of the Jay Pritzker Pavilion over its lawn — The Jay Pritzker Pavilion, Millennium Park, 2012. Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 3.0

Millennium Park and the Blues Festival

The first Chicago Blues Festival was held in 1984, a year after his death. The free festival is held in Millennium Park; in 2026 it ran from 4 to 7 June.

The festival is free, with no tickets; pavilion seats are first come, first served.

Field notes

Where it is now

7 places you can visit, in the Delta and in Chicago. The house on Lake Park Avenue is private and not on the map.

Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.

General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A Mississippi Blues Trail marker in the middle of town: free to see at any time.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Two roadside markers stand where the house was, in open farmland. The house itself is in the Delta Blues Museum in town.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Monday to Saturday 10am–5pm, last entry 4.30pm. Adults $15; Coahoma County residents free.

The Mississippi Blues Trail marker in Rolling Fork, 2022, before the 2023 tornado. Chillin662 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Chestnut Street, Rolling Fork, Mississippi
The birthplace marker, Rolling Fork
His grandmother, Della Grant, called him “Muddy” because he loved playing in the mud as a baby; his playmates added “Water”, then “Waters”.
A Mississippi Blues Trail marker in the middle of town: free to see at any time.
Field notes
Where the house stood at Stovall, outside Clarksdale, 2017. Bobpalez · CC BY-SA 4.0
Stovall Road, outside Clarksdale
Where the house stood, Stovall
He spent most of his first thirty years in a house on this site, on the Stovall Plantation.
Two roadside markers stand where the house was, in open farmland. The house itself is in the Delta Blues Museum in town.
Field notes
The Delta Blues Museum in the old freight depot, Clarksdale, 2017. VitaleBaby · Public domain
1 Blues Alley Lane, Clarksdale
The Delta Blues Museum
The restored house from Stovall went on show at the museum in 1996.
Monday to Saturday 10am–5pm, last entry 4.30pm. Adults $15; Coahoma County residents free.
Field notes

Stay

Sleep in the Delta.

A night outside Clarksdale, a short drive from the museum and Stovall.

Shack Up Inn

Clarksdale, Mississippi

Sleep in the Delta outside Clarksdale, with live music on its own calendar. Guests must be 25 or over; no children. Pictured: the farmland at Stovall.

Check rooms

Go there