Mississippi born singerguitarist Muddy Waters was much more than an influential blues man, he was an artistic epicenter, a rare, luminous astral body around whom it seemed, at certain points, the entire postwar blues galaxy was centered. It would not be an exaggeration to say that Muddy represented the celestial pole of the blues very center, a point of connection between the music's symbolic heaven and earth, one through which flowed a surging force so powerful it not only affected how musicians performed, it reached into the very socialcultural fabric of the nation, and eventually the world. Bound together by a rare symmetry of creative elements, he also ultimately represents a uniting force that, through his pervasive influence on rock roll's practitioners, brought black and white together at time of profound division. Muddy Waters changed everything. He proposed a modern blues reality so tangibly potent and loaded with soul deep appeal that it was like a portal to an undreamed of realm, and all who entered therein were made a gift of Muddy's singular philosophical rhythms and truth. As a ringmaster for rock roll a Godfather who not only facilitated but also participated by leading Chuck Berry to the recording studio, inspiring and touring with the Rolling Stones he is completely unique all over again.