Margolin released his second album for Alligator, “My Blues and My Guitar” in 1995 followed by 1997’s “Up & In”. “You Gonna Miss Me, a Tribute to Muddy Waters” on Telarc Records was nominated for a Grammy Award in ‘96. In December of that year, they cut an album featuring the band and special guests from the Rock and Blues worlds. In August and September of that year, The Muddy Waters Tribute Band, featuring musicians who were in Muddy’s band when he was, went on a national tour with B.B. By 1994, Margolin was touring hard and playing at many of the major blues festivals during the summer season. The new album and Piedmont’s strong booking took Margolin all over the world and helped to reconnect him with an international Blues audience. At the same time, he signed with Piedmont Talent, a Blues booking agency based in Charlotte, NC. “This was certainly the biggest ‘break’ I’d had in music since Muddy took me into his band twenty years before”. In 1993, Margolin signed with Alligator Records and released his third solo album, Down In The Alley. ![]() Margolin’s second album for Powerhouse, “Chicago Blues”, released in ‘91, featured songs from three different recording sessions. “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. 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.īy the end of the ‘80s, the blues scene was going through big changes. 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. “All through the ‘80s I ran up and down the highways, mostly in Virginia and North Carolina. He relocated to Washington, DC then Blacksburg, Virginia - eventually winding up North Carolina in 1989. Margolin left Muddy’s band in 1980 and formed his own band. “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. Martin Scorsese filmed the concert for the classic film. In ‘76, Muddy brought Margolin with him to San Francisco to perform at The Band’s “Last Waltz” concert. 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. 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. Margolin was hired by Muddy Waters in 1973. Inspired by Chuck Berry, he started playing guitar at age 15 and immediately started performing in local rock and blues bands. Boston native Bob Margolin was born in 1949.
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