Home » Jazz Musicians » Bob Margolin

Bob Margolin

oston native BOB MARGOLIN was born in 1949. Inspired by Chuck Berry, he started playing guitar at age 15 and immediately started performing in local rock and blues bands. Margolin was hired by Muddy Waters in 1973.

Muddy’s band toured the world and jammed with many great blues and rock musicians, “but the biggest thrill was playing Muddy’s Blues with him.” Muddy brought Margolin with him to special shows and recordings, when he sometimes didn’t use his whole band, to give him a familiar sound when working with other musicians. In 1975, they recorded Grammy Award-winning “Muddy Waters Woodstock Album”, Muddy’s last for Chess Records, which featured Paul Butterfield, and Levon Helm and Garth Hudson from The Band. In ‘76, Muddy brought Margolin with him to San Francisco to perform at The Band’s “Last Waltz” concert. Martin Scorcese filmed the concert for the classic film. “As it happened, only one camera was operating during our performance, zooming in or out, and since I was standing right next to Muddy, I was in every shot while he sang a powerful ‘Mannish Boy.'” Margolin also played on the four albums that Muddy recorded for Blue Sky Records, which were produced by Johnny Winter, and with Johnny on his Nothin’ But The Blues album. Three of those albums won Grammy Awards.

Margolin left Muddy’s band in 1980 and formed his own band. He relocated to Washington, DC then Blacksburg, Virginia — eventually winding up North Carolina in 1989. “All through the ‘80s I ran up and down the highways, mostly in Virginia and North Carolina. I was able to make a living without the pressures of the music business, and didn’t even feel any need to release an album. I was playing most nights with total musical freedom and no commercial considerations.” Periodically during those years, Margolin played a few high profile gigs — He appeared at the 1984 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, joining The Fabulous Thunderbirds for a tribute to Muddy Waters (with Etta James singing, and Taj Mahal and James Cotton opening.) His own band opened shows for Stevie Ray Vaughan, George Thorogood, Johnny Winter, and The T-Birds.

By the end of the ‘80s, the blues scene was going through big changes. “I realized that to continue making a living playing Blues, I would have to record and get back out on the worldwide Blues Scene and tour more widely.” In 1989, he recorded his first solo album “The Old School” for Powerhouse Records, owned by DC-based guitar wizard Tom Principato. Margolin’s second album for Powerhouse, “Chicago Blues”, released in ‘91, featured songs from three different recording sessions. In 1993, Margolin signed with Alligator Records and released his third solo album, Down In The Alley. “This was certainly the biggest ‘break’ I’d had in music since Muddy took me into his band twenty years before”. At the same time, he signed with Piedmont Talent, a Blues booking agency based in Charlotte, NC. The new album and Piedmont’s strong booking took Margolin all over the world and helped to reconnect him with an international Blues audience.

Read more

Tags

7
Album Review

Bob Margolin: My Road

Read "My Road" reviewed by James Nadal


The term blues guitarist has been so abused and misused, that when the real player comes along, it sounds like a jaded cliché to utilize it. Bob Margolin is a blues guitarist. His tenure in the Muddy Waters band from 1973 to 1980 netted him that distinctive title, and My Road, is his story. On this record, Margolin opted to go with a bare bones ensemble consisting of himself on guitar, Chuck Cotton on drums, and Ted Walters on the ...

151
Album Review

Bob Margolin: The Bob Margolin All Star Blues Jam

Read "The Bob Margolin All Star Blues Jam" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


One beauty of the blues is that its masters may get together with no practice and produce fabulous music. That is what occurs on The Bob Margolin All Star Blues Jam, where the leader assembles what is left of the Chicago Blues 1950s heyday for a bit of a trip down memory lane. Margolin, himself an alumni of the Muddy Waters band, is quite deft at pulling this all off. Joining Margolin is harpist Carey Bell, who produces a very ...

Read more articles

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

My Road

Steady Rollin' Records
2015

buy

The Bob Margolin All...

Telarc Records
2003

buy

Similar

Duke Robillard
guitar, steel
Otis Rush
guitar, electric
Tab Benoit
guitar, electric
Jimmy Thackery
guitar, electric
Deborah Coleman
guitar, electric
Hubert Sumlin
guitar, electric
Ronnie Earl
guitar, electric
Kenny Neal
guitar, electric
Son Seals
guitar, electric
Tommy Castro
guitar, electric
Dave Hole
guitar and vocals
Joanna Connor
guitar and vocals

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.