A blues harmonica player, James Cotton played for years with Muddy Waters and frequently worked with rock acts such as Paul Butterfield, Janis Joplin, Steve Miller and others. He left home at age nine after hearing blues harmonica player Sonny Boy Williamson on the radio in Arkansas; he spent the next six years playing with Williamson. With his own band, he supported himself with club dates and recorded sporadically. In the 1980s he received three Grammy awards and continued to tour and record in the 1990s.