Chapter 9

“The Shoeshine Boy”

 Text 2

When “Big Bill” Morganfield compares his own achievements as a blues artist to that of his father, his comparison is full of respect.

“ While Muddy Waters was the father of the blues, I’m just a shoeshine boy “.

He still has one of his father’s guitars, an old “ Gretsch “, but he does not bring it with him on his tours unless he can carry it as hand luggage. “It is of course one of the memories of my father and valuable as such, but I also cherish it because of its special sound. It is an extraordinary instrument”, he says.

Big Bill did not learn to play from his father. Quietly he explains,” I did not see much of my father during my boyhood and adolescence”.

The death of his father triggered his own interest in becoming a blues artist.  After six – seven years of learning, his apprenticeship period ended by the release of his first CD. The title of the CD is quite telling. It is called “ Rising Son “.

 “ I just had to do something to pay homage to him. To express how much I admired and loved him. That’s how the blues came along, in a way, from father to son”.