I’ll be releasing the second Bluesman story very soon and thought that made a perfect excuse to spotlight another of the great blues legends: Howlin’ Wolf.

Chester Arthur Burnett, named after the US President, started a troubled and influential life in 1910.  He lived with his mother and his abusive uncle in West Station, Mississippi until, at the age of 13, he ran away to the Delta to live with his father, half-sister, and step-siblings.  With a love of music from early on, he called upon a neighbor to teach him to play guitar.  That neighbor — blues legend Charley Patton. Around the same time he picked up on blues harp from another great, Sonny Boy Williamson II

His distinctive voice — a deep, gravelly sound that earned him his stage name — and his imposing stature — 6′ 3″ and 275 lbs — led him to be a memorable figure when giving a performance.  As he grew up and became a reliable musician, he traveled the Delta, playing blues with such greats as Robert Johnson, Son House, and Willie Brown.

Drafted in 1941, his army career ended with a nervous breakdown and several years of aimless wandering.  But by 1948, he emerged with a band, and a few years later, he was recording some early hits.  By 1953, he was on the Chess Records label along with Muddy Waters and the two men became friends and rivals at the same time.  They both carved out the Chicago blues sound.  Though Wolf recorded numerous great songs, many of which became blues standards that then went on to became rock standards, he never reached the heights of public acceptance that Muddy did.  He was a bluesman’s bluesman, but for those of us who know and love his music, he’s so much more.

Some of those classics you might know from covers by Jimi Hendrix, Cream, The Doors and others: Smokestack Lightning, Sitting on Top of the World, Killing Floor, Spoonful, Little Red Rooster, Evil, Back Door Man, and I Ain’t Superstitious.

Wolf’s longtime guitarist was the great Hubert Sumlin who died just recently.  Sumlin’s unique bare-fingered style of striking the strings hard and crisp was the perfect accompaniment to Wolf’s voice.  Sumlin’s strong riffs and stronger playing went on to inspire numerous rock legends including Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

The fact is that like a lot of the blues, most of the pop and rock music of today would not exist today if not for people like Howlin’ Wolf.  Here’s a video of both Howlin’ Wolf and his guitarist, Hubert Sumlin, in action.