Bob “Steady Rollin’” Margolin established instant credentials in the blues world when he joined the Muddy Waters band in 1973 and continued to build an impressive resume in the nearly seven years he toured with Muddy and afterwards. Margolin has won Blues Music Awards in three different categories: Acoustic Blues Album, Traditional Blues Male Artist and Blues Instrumentalist—Guitar.
Born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on May 9, 1949, Margolin started playing guitar as a teenager and recorded a psychedelic album with the group Freeborne in 1968. Blues came to be his specialty, however, and he played in ex-Muddy sideman Luther “Georgia Boy” Johnson’s band, the Boston Blues Band and other units. One night in August 1973 he snared a front-table seat at a Muddy Waters show in Boston. Harmonica player Mojo Buford informed him that Muddy had just fired guitarist Sammy Lawhorn, and Margolin was hired the next day after an audition at Muddy’s hotel room. In addition to touring the world with Muddy, he recorded on The Muddy Waters Woodstock Album and Muddy’s four albums on Blue Sky produced by Johnny Winter. He joined Muddy onstage at The Band’s famous Last Waltz concert and has since been featured in assorted tributes to Muddy in person and on CD and DVD. Along the way he has played on albums by Winter,
Koko Taylor, Junior Wells, Bob Corritore, Henry Gray, Eric Clapton, Diunna Greenleaf, Ann Rabson, Nappy Brown, the Nighthawks, John Brim, Billy Boy Arnold, Sunnyland Slim and Muddy’s son Big Bill Morganfield, among others. He has toured extensively with assorted aggregations after moving from Boston to Washington, D.C., then Virginia and finally North Carolina.
Margolin’s first CDs came out on the Powerhouse label, followed by more on Alligator, Blind Pig, Telarc, his own Steady Rollin’ label, and Vizztone. In addition to serving as a partner in Vizztone, he works with the Pinetop Perkins Foundation mentoring young musicians and is the co-author of two instruction books with Dave Rubin Margolin’s insightful way with words has extended to songwriting and to penmanship in blues publications, his own eBook and his informative website. In 2013 the Blues Foundation presented him with the award for Keeping the Blues Alive in Journalism. In print and his music, he has continued to enhance his own stature while honoring his days with Muddy and many others with gratitude and respect—as reflected in the title of his album, Thanks.