Chicago has always been a great town for slide guitar, essentially starting with Tampa Red's recording debut in 1928, on up through the current day, with performers like Little Ed Williams. In between those two bookends, however, is a lot of fascinating history.
Tampa Red's slide guitar technique was fluid, smooth, and rather advanced, in that he used the instrument to play modern-styled single-note guitar solos (unlike most players from Mississippi, who would typically use a chordal approach, playing several stings at once), and he dominated the Chicago scene, virtually unchallenged, for many years.
One who did was a young up and coming talent, Robert Nighthawk, who had been taught a few pointers from his buddy, the legendary Houston Stackhouse. After his 1937 debut on wax, his style continued to progress, showing an obvious influence from Tampa Red. By the time the late 1940s rolled around, Nighthawk's matchless technique bore no equals, and he would go on to influence virtually every slide guitar player who came afterwards, including Earl Hooker, Elmore James, and Muddy Waters.
Although Muddy arrived in Chicago in the early 1940s, he didn't make his commercial recording debut until 1946. First, on an obscure outing for the 20th Century label (that wasn't "rediscovered" until decades later — Muddy said he'd forgotten all about it), and then a couple months later, with another session for Columbia. Apparently, he failed to make an impression with either operation, and a year later, would be recording for Phil and Leonard Chess. As they say, the rest is history — or, in this case, almost.
After recording a number of sides for Aristocrat (the label that immediately preceded Chess), it wasn't until late 1947 that Muddy brought his Mississippi roots to bear front and center — which he did on a legendary slice of wax: a single that was issued the following June as Aristocrat release #1305. It featured "I Can't Be Satisfied" on one side, and "I Feel Like Going Home" on the other. In a time honored tradition, Leonard Chess distributed copies of it out of the trunk of his car to almost 200 retailers, distributors, barber shops, beauty parlors, and Pullman Porters (and even a few record shops!) on the West and South sides of Chicago. Although Chess had complained, during rehearsal, that he couldn't understand what Muddy was singing, his partner, Evelyn Aaron, said, "I think he's got something." Certainly, after the first pressing sold out in about 12 hours, Leonard Chess realized EXACTLY what Muddy was singing about. The resulting sales made Muddy a star of the Aristocrat and Chess operations — a relationship that would last even after Phil and Leonard sold their label in 1969 — and registered a shift-change in the consciousness of the record buying public for the foreseeable future.
After sticking with the "hit winning" formula for a couple years (Muddy on slide guitar, with Big Crawford on bass), Muddy finally got himself in trouble on a moonlight session for Parkway. His enthusiastic slide playing on some recordings, which featured Little Walter and Baby Face Leroy as the lead vocalists, was easily detected by Leonard Chess. One record, in particular, "Rollin' And Tumblin'," has since been regarded as one of the high water marks of postwar Chicago blues. Even so, Leonard had Muddy come in and cut his own version of the song, which effectively killed the Parkway version, and along with it, the fledgling Parkway Record label.
As 1950 drew to a close and 1951 was about to dawn, Muddy, Nighthawk, and Tampa were still making some great music. However, with the 1952 arrival of a fresh face from Mississippi, everything was about to change in the Windy City once again.
But we'll have to leave that for next time....
Special thanks to Bill Greensmith for help with material, to Mike Rowe, whose "Chicago Breakdown" was an invaluable reference, and also to the good folks at the Red Saunders Research Foundation.
Pictured: Tampa Red in a 1940s RCA Victor publicity shot. Courtesy of the Bill Greensmith collection.
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