Deep Blues Chapter 3: Mojo Hands

This chapter returned to the (musical) life of Muddy Waters. A ton of new people were introduced and a lot of them have songs that are in one of Nic's playlists so it was nice to be able to hear the music that was being explained in all of the chapters.

The chapter started off with an explanation of prominant superstitions that existed in the early 1920s-1940s (around that time anyway) including voodoo doctors that "gave" people good luck in whatever it was they were trying to do. After that intro it continued on into how Muddy began playing around with music when he was still a toddler. He first started playing the accordian when he was five and then he progressed onto the Jew's harp, French harp (harmonica), and guitar. Reading about this made me wish that I would've been encouraged to play music more as a child! It was Muddy's way out of the fields and into something that gave him release and that he loved. He was able to learn from the other musicians in Coahoma County and elaborate on that base to get his own performance style (including delayed singing).

I enjoyed reading about Muddy because I could tell in all of the quotes from him that his music is an integral part of his life just as it is for many of the other blues musicians of that time and musicians still around now. Feeling passion for one's work is something that is far underappreciated in our society where people have become more and more concerned about money than happiness. I'm not saying the money had no role in why these people played music, but there is genuine feeling in the songs that leads me to believe they played because they enjoyed playing. When I grow up and am forced to decide what I'm doing with my life, I hope that I can still say I just want to be happy in my life and career and know that I am doing something worthwhile.