Editing Muddy Waters (section)

===Early career, 1930s–1948===
In the early 1930s, he accompanied [[Big Joe Williams]] on tours of the Delta, playing harmonica. Williams recounted to Blewett Thomas that he eventually dropped Muddy "because he was takin' away my women [fans]".

In August 1941,<ref name="PBS" /> [[Alan Lomax]] went to [[Stovall, Mississippi]], on behalf of the Library of Congress to record various [[country blues]] musicians. "He brought his stuff down and recorded me right in my house," Muddy told ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' magazine, "and when he played back the first song I sounded just like anybody's records. Man, you don't know how I felt that Saturday afternoon when I heard that voice and it was my own voice. Later on he sent me two copies of the pressing and a check for twenty bucks, and I carried that record up to the corner and put it on the jukebox. Just played it and played it and said, 'I can do it, I can do it'."<ref name="Palmer" /> Lomax came back in July 1942 to record him again. Both sessions were eventually released by [[Testament Records (USA)|Testament Records]] as ''Down on Stovall's Plantation''.{{sfn|Gordon|2002|p=196}} The complete recordings were reissued by Chess Records on CD as ''Muddy Waters: The Complete Plantation Recordings. The Historic 1941–42 Library of Congress Field Recordings'' in 1993 and remastered in 1997.

In 1943, he headed to Chicago with the hope of becoming a full-time professional musician. He recalled arriving in Chicago as the single most momentous event in his life.{{sfn|Palmer|1982|p=13}} He lived with a relative for a short period while driving a truck and working in a factory by day and performing at night.{{sfn|Palmer|1982|p=14}} [[Big Bill Broonzy]], then one of the leading bluesmen in Chicago, had Muddy open his shows in the rowdy clubs where Broonzy played. This gave him the opportunity to play in front of a large audience.{{sfn|O'Neal|Van Singel|2002|pp=172–173}} In 1944, he bought his first electric guitar and then formed his first electric combo. He felt obliged to electrify his sound in Chicago because, he said, "When I went into the clubs, the first thing I wanted was an amplifier. Couldn't nobody hear you with an acoustic." His sound reflected the optimism of postwar African Americans. [[Willie Dixon]] said that "There was quite a few people around singing the blues but most of them was singing all sad blues. Muddy was giving his blues a little pep."{{sfn|Szatmary|2014|p=8}}

In 1946, he recorded some songs for [[Mayo Williams]] at [[Columbia Records]], with an old-fashioned combo consisting of clarinet, saxophone and piano; they were released a year later with Ivan Ballen's Philadelphia-based 20th Century label, billed as James "Sweet Lucy" Carter and his Orchestra – Muddy Waters' name was not mentioned on the label.<ref name="clemson">{{cite web|title=Ebony, Chicago, Southern, and Harlem: The Mayo Williams Indies|url=http://campber.people.clemson.edu/ebony.html|access-date=June 25, 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090622191207/http://hubcap.clemson.edu/~campber/ebony.html|archive-date=June 22, 2009}}</ref> Later that year, he began recording for [[Aristocrat Records]], a newly formed label run by the brothers [[Leonard Chess|Leonard]] and [[Phil Chess]]. In 1947, he played guitar with [[Sunnyland Slim]] on piano on the cuts "Gypsy Woman" and "Little Anna Mae". These were also shelved, but in 1948, "I Can't Be Satisfied" and "I Feel Like Going Home" became hits, and his popularity in clubs began to take off.{{sfn|Palmer|1982|pp=159–160}} Soon after, Aristocrat changed its name to [[Chess Records]]. His signature tune "[[Rollin' Stone (Muddy Waters song)|Rollin' Stone]]" also became a hit that year.