Muddy Waters was born McKinley Morganfield on April 4, 1915, in Issaquena County, Mississippi, a rural town on the Mississippi River. He was given the moniker "Muddy Waters" because he played in the swampy puddles of the Mississippi River as a boy. His spidery, swampy slide guitar and deep, sensual voice, ambling over the grooves of his band, gave the blues a visceral wallop that took the back-porch jams of the Delta to an entirely new place. He is often cited as the "father of modern Chicago blues" He died of heart failure on April 30, 1983.