Born in Boston in 1949 and raised in nearby Brookline, MA, Bob Margolin began playing guitar at age 15. Inspired by rock and roll pioneer Chuck Berry, Margolin followed Berry’s musical threads back to their blues roots -- a journey that took him back to the music of Chicago blues titan Muddy Waters. Inspired by the blues tradition, Margolin played in a number of blues and blues-rock bands in the Boston area.

Margolin met Muddy Waters in 1973, shortly after Muddy had lost guitarist Sammy Lawhorn. Muddy, who had taken an interest in Margolin’s music after seeing him play in some regional bands, hired him to fill the position. Margolin was a prominent sideman on the 1975 Grammy-winning Muddy Waters Woodstock Album. He also appeared with Muddy in the 1976 Martin Scorsese film of The Band’s The Last Waltz concert.

Margolin left Muddy’s band in 1980, and spent most of the decade playing only an occasional high-profile gig (like the New Orleans Jazz Festival in 1984), concentrating instead on small clubs along the East Coast, mostly in Virginia and North Carolina. He didn’t record his first solo album until 1989. The Old School, released on the Powerhouse label, featured Nighthawks harpist Mark Wenner, bassist Jeff Sarli and drummer Big Joe Maher. Margolin released Chicago Blues, also on Powerhouse, in 1991. Chicago Blues featured his own band of bassist Mookie Brill and drummer Clark Matthews, as well as several Chicago blues veterans, including guitarist Jimmy Rogers and pianist Pinetop Perkins. Other notable guests on the album included Fabulous Thunderbirds harpist/vocalist Kim Wilson and saxophonist Kaz Kazanoff.

Margolin left Powerhouse and moved to the Chicago-based Alligator label, where he released Down in the Alley in 1993. The album reintroduced Margolin to the world-wide blues audience and the international tour circuit. A year later, he reconnected with several other alums from Muddy Waters’ band and recorded You’re Gonna Miss Me (When I’m Dead and Gone), a 1995 Grammy nominee on Telarc that featured Pinetop Perkins, Luther “Guitar Junior” Johnson, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, Calvin “Fuzz” Jones and Jerry Portnoy. The star-studded recording also included special guest appearances by Gregg Allman, James Cotton, Buddy Guy, Levon Helm, Koko Taylor, Junior Wells, former J. Geils Band frontman Peter Wolf, Sonny Landreth and Billy Branch.

Margolin toured extensively and continued to record on Alligator throughout the 1990s, then moved to Blind Pig in 1999 for the release of Hold Me To It.

Since 2000, Margolin has been putting together travelling revues featuring many of his old friends from the Chicago blues scene. “We find we do better together,” he says, “playing concerts and festivals, and filling clubs rather than scuffling individually, as even some of the best known blues musicians do today.” In the fall of 2002, he laid down some impromptu tracks with his Bob Margolin All-Star Blues Jam, a loosely-knit musical collective that includes Pinetop Perkins, Carey Bell, Hubert Sumlin, and bassist/harpist/vocalist Mookie Brill. The resulting album, All-Star Blues Jam, was released on Telarc in May 2003.

“All the music I’ve listened to and played, all the experiences onstage, and all of the fine musicians I’ve worked with have all left their mark on me, and are part of the music when I play now,” says Margolin. “On the bandstand, I play what feels right at the moment, whether I’m featuring my original songs, telling stories, joking and talking with he audience, or just playing for the dancers. I like to be a professional in terms of responsibility and competence, but past that, I am a musician playing for my friends.”