Rollin' and Tumblin' is a blues standard with roots in the Delta blues. The original artist is Hambone Willie Newbern, who recorded Rollin' and Tumblin' Blues in 1929 for Okeh Records as a solo slide-guitar piece in open tuning, telling the tale of a failed romance in an AAB lyric pattern. In 1950 Muddy Waters popularized a Chicago electric version, released as a two-part single on Parkway Records (Parts 1 and 2) and also issued in a different arrangement for Aristocrat Records; this recording helped anchor the tune in the modern blues repertoire. The song is notable for its non-standard blues form—an IV-to-I shift, an irregular bar count, and a driving slide guitar feel—yet it remains recognizable across generations. It has been widely covered by artists from Cream on Fresh Cream (1966) to Canned Heat and Johnny Winter, and it has appeared on various Muddy Waters compilations such as The Real Folk Blues. Rollin' and Tumblin' thus traces a path from early Delta slide to electric Chicago blues and beyond, illustrating how a simple melody can travel through genres and decades.
