McKinley Morganfield, better known as Muddy Waters, grew up on Stovall Plantation near Clarksdale, MS where he learned to play guitar in the regional style emulating local legends Son House and Robert Johnson. In 1941 and 1942 Muddy made his first recordings for Alan Lomax (Library of Congress) who came to Stovall to record various country blues musicians.

These first recordings gave Muddy the confidence to move north to Chicago with the hopes of becoming a full time musician. He purchased his first electric guitar in 1944 and in only a few short years not only achieved his goal but became a major star recording hits like "I Can't Be Satisfied", "I Feel Like Going Home", "I Got My Mojo Working," "I Just Want to Make Love To You" and many more with his infamous band. This raw electric sound ushered in a new era of blues and Chicago, Chess Records, and Muddy Waters where the epicenter.

In this lesson Tom Feldmann takes you through 6 of Muddy's staple slide tunes in Open G, Open D and Standard Tuning. Feldmann teaches each song slowly, phrase by phrase, making this a perfect lesson for those new to playing slide as well as the more seasoned players looking to get deeper into the mind and music of the great Muddy Waters. A detailed tab/music PDF file is included on the DVD.

Titles Include: I Can't Be Satisfied, I Feel Like Going Home, Rollin' and Tumblin' Blues, You're Going to Need My Help I Said, Long Distance Call, She Moves Me

113 minutes - Level 2/3 - Detailed tab/music PDF file on the DVD

Review: The blues has its share of iconic sounds. The silvery vibrato twinge off B.B.'s strings, for instance. The metallic buzz from Little Walter's harp. The quake beneath John Lee's pounding foot. And, of course, Muddy's dive-bombing slide guitar. Old soul Tom Feldmann-who has already dissected the signature sounds, styles and songs of blues bedrock from Robert Johnson and Charley Patton to Bukka White and Fred McDowell-just cracked the code to Waters' bottlenecking. And Feldmann has the sound down-cold. Yeah, he's that good. Meaning that after woodshedding with this two-hour epiphany, you, too, will be able to place a bloodcurdling "Long Distance Call." Ride the elastic recoil of "Rollin' and Tumblin' Blues." Gash into the downturned "You're Going to Need My Help I Said." And get "She Moves Me" to heave on a sea of those deep trademark swells. Rounding out the six Delta-via-Chicago staples is the quintessential duo: the 1948 flipside pairing of "I Can't Be Satisfied" with "I Feel Like Going Home" that shot lightning straight through Chicago and around the world. Feldmann even goes the extra mile to suggest optional bass patterns for those lacking a headcutting backup band of your own. A valuable resource for everyone craving to harness the glory and majesty which streamed from "The Slide Guitar of Muddy Waters." – Dennis Rozanski/Blues Rag

Review: Yes folks, another offering from that prodigious outfit known in full as Stefan Grossmans Guitar Workshop. This one is presented by Tom Feldmann who has a fine track record of previous tuition sessions both on DVD and in print. Tom takes six of Muddy's well-known tracks and strips them down to a note by note tutorial, and he plays them in short sessions that give you a chance to catch up with what he is doing. Each part is repeated fast and then slow and played as a full piece and each one is of course faithfully notated on the accompanying PDF booklet, (If you are going to print this off, be prepared to have plenty of ink in your printer as he covers all six songs in full) He also plays two numbers in Open G, Open D and in standard tuning which I found particularly useful as it gives you some licks or phrases that you might not have found for yourself. I know I have said it before, but this is yet another fine product from the Workshop. – Dave Stone/Blues Matters!