ABSTRACT
On May 12, 1952, five months after the groundbreaking first session featuring Muddy's full band, Leonard Chess called another session at Universal Studios on Chicago's near North Side. Chess had no doubt taken note of the fact that Walter was emerging as a star attraction in his own right. Not only was he a driven and inventive player, he was also young and good looking, flashy in a way that the darker, older, and more aloof Muddy wasn't. Chess must have also considered his sales figures on Jimmy Rogers's first hit "That's Alright" from a year-and-a-half earlier; the more singles he could get out of already signed and established artists, the better. Walter's harp sound had obviously been a driving force behind several of Rogers's and Waters's best-selling records over the last two years. Because he was not himself signed as a Chess artist, Walter was free to cut a few singles on his own. Although the Chess label was already emerging as the premiere Chicago blues label, Walter's moonlighting projects surely must have been seen as competition for record sales by Chess. It made sense to give the young man his own shot.
