Muddy Waters

Muddy Waters went from pickin' cotton in Mississippi to pickin' electric guitar in Chicago, and created many of the great Chicago blues classics. Together with Willie Dixon, Jimmy Rogers and Little Walter, the Muddy Waters Band lay the foundation for the birth to Rock N Roll.
And they had the tools to do the job- newly invented electric guitars. It was Jimmy Rogers on rhythm guitar and Muddy on electric slide. Albeit these weren't today's Fender Strats and Gibson Les Pauls, but they had that funky sound. And they had amplifiers, 20 watt tube amps in the years before there were Fender Super Reverbs and Marshall stacks. And they had also had Little Walter, a breathtaking blues harmonica player that blew the roof off Chicago Clubs.


So where's the Rock N' Roll connection? Just like in a movie, there hanging around the studio was a young guitar player, Chuck Berry, another Chess Records blues artist looking to make a name for himself.
Chuck Berry started playing blues songs uptempo and messing with the rhythm. Instead of changing chords on the 'downbeat' (1st beat of the measure), Chuck switched chords on the 'and of four' from the previous chord. And the result was Rock N Roll!