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Lafayette's popular Sound Alternatives series presents the Muddy Waters Tribute Band, 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 9 at the Williams Center for the Arts. Tickets are $18 and may be purchased by calling the box office at 610-330-5009.

An all-star line-up of today's leading blues artists pool their talents to create The Muddy Waters Tribute Band. The band consists of renowned players who backed the legendary blues artist McKinley Morganfield, a.k.a. Muddy Waters, through most of the seventies. Thrilling audiences worldwide with their impressive and authentic hard-driving performances, they are acknowledged as masters of the Delta blues.

Blues pianist Pinetop Perkins, said to possess “the entire blues vocabulary in his fingers” (The New York Times, November 27, 1998), guitarist-singer Luther Johnson, and Eric Clapton sideman Jerry Portnoy on blues harmonica, headline the tribute band. Guitarist Bob Margolin, bassist Calvin Jones, and drummer Willie Smith complete the musical tour de force forging an enduring link in this uniquely American musical tradition.

In addition to successful concert tours, their album You're Gonna Miss Me (When I'm Dead & Gone) garnered a Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Blues Recording in 1996. In a nod to the continuing blues influence in American music, the album featured contributions from numerous contemporary artists including Gregg Allman, Buddy Guy, and Levon Helm.

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