At 70, Mud Morganfield is now the same age as when his father, the great blues legend Muddy Waters, passed away in 1983. The fact puts new perspective on his ongoing mission: “to try to keep dad’s music alive in the 21st century.”
As Waters’ eldest son, Morganfield has been taking up that mantle since 2008 when he released his debut album, “Fall Waters Fall,” and many quickly took note of the nimble playing and smooth baritone and uncanny resemblance that felt like a second coming. The comparisons continued with his 2014 tribute album, “For Pops: A Tribute to Muddy Waters,” done with harmonica player/The Fabulous Thunderbirds frontman Kim Wilson in which Morganfield takes on some of the classics from his dad’s songbook like “I Just Want to Make Love to You” (written by Willie Dixon and performed by Waters) and “Blow Wind Blow,” which was also covered by Eric Clapton.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to have been able to inherit his lungs and his mannerisms and everything; [people] say they see Dad in me. I’m just over the moon and proud to be the son of Muddy Waters,” Morganfield shares in a recent phone call from his home near Oak Park, where he’s in the midst of taking care of his three dogs (two pit bulls and a chihuahua “who runs the house”) and getting ready to put that likeness on display at Evanston’s SPACE on Jan. 11.
The set, he shares, will be a mix of his father’s catalog as well as his own originals, including cuts from an as-yet-unnamed album he’s currently working on, which will be the follow-up to his 2022 album “Portrait,” released on local label Delmark Records.
“This particular album is probably the first I’ve taken my time with, really dotted my I’s and crossed my T’s, to make sure that I get the best I can out to the world,” says Morganfield of the upcoming record, which he’s been laying down at the legendary JoyRide Studios with a band that includes his father’s guitarist, Rick Kreher.
“I always try to put something on my albums that everybody can relate to … for blues lovers, rhythm and blues, funk here and there, slow traditional blues. This album is going to have all of that,” Morganfield adds. “I didn’t want to leave no stone uncovered.”
Morganfield was raised by his mother, Mildred Williams, and didn’t see much of his father growing up as Waters was a workhorse, recording and collaborating and bringing his brand of Chicago blues around the world to anyone who wanted to hear it. Over in England, Mick Jagger and Charlie Watts caught wind and named their fledgling band after Waters’ hit “Rollin’ Stone.” (A sweet full-circle moment came last summer when Morganfield and the progeny of other blues greats like Freddie Dixon, son of Willie, and Little Walter’s daughter, Marion Diaz Reacco, took in the Brits’ show at Soldier Field).
Yet playing music always came natural to Morganfield and his half-brother Big Bill Morganfield, who has also had a successful music career and currently appears as fictional Mississippi blues player Jesse Moffette in the new Bob Dylan biopic, “A Complete Unknown.”
“I always try to put something on my albums that everybody can relate to … for blues lovers, rhythm and blues, funk here and there, slow traditional blues. This [new] album is going to have all of that. I didn’t want to leave no stone uncovered.” — Mud Morganfield
“I used to have to pat my pillow and my mattress to make myself go to sleep,” Morganfield recalls. “I’ve always had these notes running through my head — it was my rockabye baby.”
Before taking up bass as an adult, Morganfield began as a drummer, using a kit his father gave him — or whatever else was around the house. “I got scolded so many times for beating on my grandmother’s furniture,” he says, laughing. “I’d break off two tree limbs and beat on cans.”
Still, Morganfield says that Waters “never pushed what he was doing on anybody, he let you make your own decisions … and I ran and ran until I couldn’t anymore. I had to sing the blues.”
Part of the reason Morganfield avoided following in his dad’s footsteps was because “you couldn’t … not while dad was still here,” he says. “Those are some big shoes to walk in.” Instead, Morganfield worked as a truck driver (just like his dad had also done) and slowly became immersed in South Side blues clubs before breaking out at the age of 54 with his first album.
Morganfield says it was actually a recurring dream that compelled him to continue in the family business.
“I kept having the same dream of me trying to speak with my dad and he wasn’t saying anything; he was kept playing and performing, and that kind of pushed me,” says Morganfield, noting that fellow Chicago blues artist Mary Lane was “instrumental” in his journey. And now, he says, “I’m just trying to work until I can’t work anymore, like all the other artists. Like Buddy Guy.”
Though Morganfield admits there’s truly no retiring in the blues.
“Not while you can still hold up that guitar and stand up and sing. There’s no out game for this.”