Bob Margolin

Guitarist and singer Bob Margolin is a New England blues treasure with over a half-century of close associations alongside luminaries like Muddy Waters, James Cotton, Johnny Winter, The Band, Paul Butterfield, Pinetop Perkins and Jerry Portnoy. Born in Brookline, Massachusetts in 1949, he embraced the guitar as a teen, largely inspired by rock ‘n’ roll icon Chuck Berry, and passed through several groups before making his recording debut with Boston-based psychedelic troupe The Freeborne on their 1967 album Peak Impressions. Lumped into the “Bosstown Sound” hype machine, the band made a go of it for a couple years, opening for The Velvet Underground at The Boston Tea Party and Canned Heat at Psychedelic Supermarket, but never toured out of state since most of the members were still in high school.

MUDDY WATERS, HARD AGAIN, JOHNNY WINTER, NOTHIN’ BUT THE BLUES

Margolin moved on, immersing himself deeper in the blues and becoming popular enough in the club scene to make promoters’ shortlists as a warmup act for some of the legends passing through town. One of those happened to be Chicago blues great Muddy Waters, who noted Margolin channeling some Elmore James slide one night, filed his name away and went on to audition the young hotshot in ’73 after he’d lost a guitarist. That decision worked out for everybody, as Margolin remained with Waters for seven years through his late career resurgence and recorded six albums with the legend, four of which won Grammys (The Muddy Waters Woodstock Album, Hard Again, I’m Ready and Muddy “Mississippi” Waters – Live). Proving himself as an accomplished writer, Margolin later penned liner notes for the reissues of most of those LPs.

In 1976, The Band invited Waters to San Francisco to participate in their farewell concert and film The Last Waltz. Accompanying his boss, Margolin appeared beside him in front of the camera onstage, later participating in a casual jam at their hotel with Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Dr. John on piano, Paul Butterfield on harmonica, Ronnie Wood on bass and drummer Levon Helm. Returning to the studio shortly afterward, Waters and his band ground out Hard Again, produced by famed Texas guitarist Johnny Winter, which achieved widespread critical success and was hailed as a major comeback. Delighted with the chemistry this unit exuded, Winter enlisted the members, including Waters and Margolin, to record his 1977 Nothin’ but the Blues album. In another heady moment just a year later, Margolin accompanied Waters to the White House to perform at President Jimmy Carter’s request.

DEBUT SOLO ALBUM, THE MUDDY WATERS TRIBUTE BAND

In 1980, after years of heavy touring, Margolin reluctantly left Waters employment, as did most of the group, when a business dispute with their manager went bad, but he remained on good terms with his former benefactor until Waters’s death in 1983. Meanwhile, the guitarist formed his own group, playing mostly in the Eastern United States before relocating to Washington DC, then North Carolina in 1989. He recorded his first solo album, The Old School, that same year for DC-based Powerhouse Records, reflecting his love of the blues masters by covering tunes written by Little Walter, Percy Mayfield, Robert Johnson and Willie Dixon. That album and another for Powerhouse in 1991, Chicago Blues, plus three for the gold standard of blues labels, Alligator Records, from ’93 to ’97 reconnected Margolin to the fans he’d made on the road and in the studio as a member of The Muddy Water Blues Band.

Operating under the nickname a deejay had given him in Boston one night, “Steady Rollin’” Bob Margolin, he widened his visibility by performing all over the world with his own outfit and The Muddy Waters Tribute Band, which featured many of his fellow players who’d once backed the legend. In 1994, that group embarked on a high-visibility tour with B.B. King, Dr. John and Little Feat, later recording You’re Gonna Miss Me (When I’m Dead and Gone), a reunion album for the Telarc label, in 1996. Elevating that release were guest appearances from Gregg Allman, Peter Wolf, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells and Koko Taylor, among others.

OTHER SOLO ALBUMS, AWARDS

Margolin recorded 1999’s Hold Me to It on the Blind Pig label before returning to Telarc with the stellar 2003 release All-Star Blues Jam, which included collaborations with “I’m not worthy!” blue masters Pinetop Perkins, Hubert Sumlin and Willie “Big Eyes” Smith. The deeply personal In North Carolina emerged in 2007 from sessions Margolin recorded alone after settling into his new Southern home. The album was released in association with VizzTone, a new label which Margolin cofounded; based in Newton, Massachusetts, the record company remains an essential outlet for blues to this day.

In 2012, Margolin partnered with the Trieste, Italy-based Mike Sponza Band on Blues Around the World, a collection of songs influenced by international rhythms recorded as far from the south side of Chicago as he could get: Slovenia. His next release, My Road, landed in 2016 and was closer to his roots and home, recorded in trio format down the road a piece in North Carolina. For the effort, Margolin won two Blues Blast Awards, “Best Traditional Blues Album” and “Best Male Blues Artist.” On the 2018 album Bob Margolin, he produced, recorded, mixed and played every note on six new originals and nine of his favorite covers.

After lovingly restoring a 1935 Gibson L-00 guitar once owned by Muddy Waters, Margolin recorded his first all-acoustic album of originals in 2019, This Guitar and Tonight. Lauded by critics, the release netted “Best Acoustic Blues Album” at the Blues Blast competition and the Blues Music Awards (formerly the W.C. Handy Awards). For 2022’s So Far, Margolin collaborated with Conan O’Brien house band guitarist Jimmy Vivino and harmonica wizard Bob Corritore. The following year’s Thanks, put a bookend on Margolin’s career as it celebrated fifty years since Muddy Waters took him under his wing and taught the tenderfoot his advanced course in authentic Chicago blues.

COLLABORATIONS, JOURNALISM, BOOKS, CURRENT ACTIVITY

Margolin has produced a long list of blues artists over the years including Waters’ son Big Bill Morganfield, Pinetop Perkins and Candye Kane, and appeared as a guest on albums by artists including Johnny Winter, John Brim, Big Joe Duskin and The Nighthawks. A prolific blues journalist since the ‘90s, he received the Blues Foundation’s prestigious “Keeping the Blues Alive” recognition in 2013 for his extensive body of writings, including those when he was a staff writer for Blues Revue magazine, where his column “Steady Rollin’” ran for years. His 2011 eBook Steady Rollin’: Blues Stories, Snapshots & (Intentional) Blues Fiction and instructional book/DVD package Chicago Blues Rhythm Guitar: The Complete Definitive Guide, written with Dave Rubin and published in 2015, are widely available.

These days, Margolin’s got his Mojo working overtime; it seems he’s always busy recording, writing, mentoring or teaching. In 1980, the utility player laid down a track with Muddy Waters called “No Escape from the Blues.” Unlike being trapped by the cascading chain of life’s disasters found in the lyrics, however, “Steady Rollin’” Bob Margolin has walked the long and arduous path to become a respected master in his own right, a vital link from the forefathers of American blues to the next generation of fans. Not bad for the kid from Brookline.

(by Carter Alan)

Carter Alan is a former WBCN deejay now heard on WZLX-FM in Boston. He’s the author of Outside is America: U2 in the U.S. (Faber & Faber, 1992), U2: The Road to Pop (Faber & Faber, 1997), Radio Free Boston: The Rise and Fall of WBCN (University Press of New England, 2013) and The Decibel Diaries: A Journey Through Rock in 50 Concerts (University of New England Press, 2017).