Big Road Blues Show 2/19/12: House Rockin’ Boogie – Howlin’ Wolf & Pals

ARTIST	SONG	ALBUM
Howlin' Wolf	How Many More Years	Smokestack Lightning: The Complete Chess Masters 1951-1960
Howlin' Wolf	Getting Old And Gray	Smokestack Lightning: The Complete Chess Masters 1951-1960
Ike Turner	Troubles & Heartaches	Rocks The Blues
Ike Turner	Love Is A Gamble	Rocks The Blues
Howlin' Wolf	California Boogie	Smokestack Lightning: The Complete Chess Masters 1951-1960
Howlin' Wolf	Well That's Alright	Smokestack Lightning: The Complete Chess Masters 1951-1960
Sammy Lewis/Willie Johnson Combo	Gonna Leave You Baby	Sun Records: The Blues Years 1950-1958
Sammy Lewis/Willie Johnson Combo	So Long Baby Goodbye	Sun Records: The Blues Years 1950-1958
Howlin' Wolf	Oh Red	Smokestack Lightning: The Complete Chess Masters 1951-1960
Howlin' Wolf	House Rockin' Boogie	Rides Again
Henry Gray	I Declare That Ain't Right	Ches Blues
Henry Gray	How Can You Do It	Chicago Ain't Nothin' But A Blues Band
Howlin' Wolf	Howlin' Wolf Talks 1	The Chess Box
Howlin' Wolf	Smokestack Lightning	Smokestack Lightning: The Complete Chess Masters 1951-1960
Jody Williams	You May	Blues Masters Vol. 2
Jody Williams	Lucky Lou	Ches Rhythm & Roll Vol. 2
Howlin' Wolf	Howlin Wolf Talks 2	The Chess Box Set
Howlin' Wolf	Long Green Stuff	Smokestack Lightning: The Complete Chess Masters 1951-1960
Smokey Smothers	You're Gonna Be Sorry	Sings The Backporch Blues
Little Johnnie Jones	Worried Life Blues	Live in Chicago with Billy Boy Arnold
Hubert Sumlin	No Title Boogie	American Folk Blues Festival 1962-1965
Howlin' Wolf	The Natchez Burning	Smokestack Lightning: The Complete Chess Masters 1951-1960
Howlin' Wolf	Howlin Wolf Talks 3	The Chess Box
Howlin' Wolf	I’ve Been Abused	Smokestack Lightning: The Complete Chess Masters 1951-1960
Buddy Guy	No Lie	Complete Chess Recordings
Buddy Guy	My Time After Awhile	Complete Chess Recordings
Howlin' Wolf	I Walked From Dallas	Smokestack Lightning: The Complete Chess Masters 1951-1960
Howlin' Wolf	Shake For Me	American Folk Blues Festival 1964
Eddie Shaw	Blues For The West Side	Chicago Blues From C.J. Records Vol. 1
Detroit Junior	Too Poor	Chess Blues
Howlin' Wolf	Meet Me In The Bottom	Newport 1967
Howlin' Wolf	Coon On The Moon	The Back Door Blues
Howlin' Wolf	Little Red Rooster	Ebbets Field 1973

Show Notes:

Today’s show spotlights the great Howlin’ Wolf from his earliest recordings in the 50’s through his final album in 1973. Along the way we’ll hear some interview snippets from the Wolf himself, classic and lesser known sides, live cut plus we’ll be spinning tracks from some of the talented musicians who passed through Wolf’s band. Musicians such Ike Turner, Willie Johnson, Henry Gray, Jody Williams, Buddy Guy, Smokey Smothers, Little Johnny Jones, Hubert Sumlin, Eddie Shaw and Detroit Junior.

He was born in West Point, MS, and named after the 21st President of the United States (Chester Arthur). His father was a farmer and Wolf took to it as well until his 18th birthday, when a chance meeting with Delta blues legend Charley Patton changed his life forever.He never learned the subtleties of Patton’s guitar technique, but did learn the growl of a voice and his talent for entertaining. The main source of Wolf’s hard-driving harmonica style came when Aleck “Rice” Miller (Sonny Boy Williamson) married his half-sister Mary and taught him the rudiments of the instrument. He first started playing in the early ’30s as a strict Patton imitator, while others recall him at decade’s end rocking the juke joints with a neck-rack harmonica and one of the first electric guitars anyone had ever seen. After a four-year stretch in the Army, he settled down as a farmer and weekend player in West Memphis, AR, and it was here that Wolf’s career in music began in earnest.

By 1948, he had established himself within the community as a radio personality. As a means of advertising his own local appearances, Wolf had a 15-minute radio show on KWEM in West Memphis. Wolf had put his first band together, featuring the explosive guitar work of Willie Johnson. Wolf finally started recording in 1951, when he caught the ear of Sam Phillips, who first heard him on his morning radio show. Phillips simultaneously leased the results to the Bihari Brothers in Los Angeles and Leonard Chess in Chicago. Suddenly, Howlin’ Wolf had two hits at the same time on the R&B charts with two record companies claiming to have him exclusively under contract. Chess finally won him over and as Wolf would proudly relate years later, “I had a 4,000 dollar car and 3,900 dollars in my pocket. I’m the onliest one drove out of the South like a gentleman.”

Howlin’ Wolf, Jody Williams, Earl Phillips, Hubert Sumlin 1954

When Wolf entered the Chess studios in 1954, the violent aggression of the Memphis sides was being replaced with a Chicago backbeat and,and Hubert Sumlin joined tha band. He first appears as a rhythm guitarist on a 1954 session, and within a few years’ time his style had fully matured to take over the role of lead guitarist in the band by early 1958. By 1956, Wolf was in the R&B charts again, racking up hits with “Evil” and “Smokestack Lightnin’.” He remained a top attraction both on the Chicago circuit and on the road. His records, while seldom showing up on the national charts, were still selling in decent numbers down South. But by 1960, Wolf was teamed up with Chess staff writer Willie Dixon, and for the next five years he would record almost nothing but songs written by Dixon. The mid-’60s saw him touring Europe regularly with “Smokestack Lightnin'” becoming a hit in England some eight years after its American release. Certainly any list of Wolf’s greatest sides would have to include “I Ain’t Superstitious,” “The Red Rooster,” “Shake for Me,” “Back Door Man,” “Spoonful,” and “Wang Dang Doodle,” Dixon compositions all.

Willie Dixon and Wolf parted company by 1964 and Wolf was back in the studio doing his own songs. By the end of the decade, Wolf’s material was being recorded by artists including the Doors, Led Zeppelin, the Electric Flag, the Blues Project, Cream, and Jeff Beck. The result of all these covers brought Wolf the belated acclaim of a young, white audience. Chess sent him over to England in 1970 to capitalize on the then-current trend of London Session albums, recording with Eric Clapton on lead guitar and other British superstars.

As the ’70s moved on, the end of the trail started coming closer. By now Wolf was a very sick man; he had survived numerous heart attacks and was suffering kidney damage from an automobile accident that sent him flying through the car’s windshield. His bandleader Eddie Shaw firmly rationed Wolf to a meager half-dozen songs per set. Occasionally some of the old fire would come blazing forth from some untapped wellspring, and his final live and studio recordings show that he could still tear the house apart when the spirit moved him. He entered the Veterans Administration Hospital in 1976 to be operated on, but never survived it, finally passing away on January 10th of that year.

Howlin’ Wolf & Hubert Sumlin

After recording “Rocket 88”, Ike Turner became a session musician and production assistant for Sam Philips and the Bihari Brothers, commuting to Memphis from Clarksdale. He played piano on many sessions during this period. Wishing to utilize Turner’s Delta music connections, Bihari contracted him as a talent scout, paying him to search out southern musicians who might be worth recording. Turner was contracted to the Bihari Brothers, but he continued to work for Sam Phillips at Sun Studios, where he was effectively the in-house producer. This sometimes created conflicts of interest. Turner cut two Howlin’ Wolf tracks, “How Many More Years” and “Moanin’ at Midnight,” (Ike played piano) which Phillips sent to Chess Records. Turner then took Wolf across the state border, re-recorded the tracks without Phillips’ or Chess’s knowledge, and sent the results to Modern/RPM. Turner also plays piano behind Wolf on sessions in Sept. , Oct. 1951 and February 1952 session.

As the guitarist in Wolf’s first band, Willie Johnson appeared on most of Wolf’s recordings between 1951 and 1953, providing the slightly jazzy yet raucous guitar sound that was the signature of all of Wolf’s Memphis recordings. Johnson also performed and recorded with other blues artists in the Memphis area, including pianist Willie Love, Willie Nix, Junior Parker, Roscoe Gordon, Bobby “Blue” Bland and others. When Wolf moved to Chicago in around 1953, he could not convince Johnson to join him. Johnson stayed on in Memphis for several years, playing on a number of sessions for Sun Records, including a 1955 collaboration with vocalist Sammy Lewis, “I Feel So Worried”, released under the name Sammy Lewis with Willie Johnson. By the time Johnson relocated to Chicago, Wolf had already hired guitarist Hubert Sumlin as a permanent replacement. James Cotton later recalled that Wolf replaced Johnson because of his heavy drinking. Johnson occasionally performed and recorded with Howlin’ Wolf after settling in Chicago, and also played briefly in the band of Muddy Waters, as well as a number of other local Chicago blues musicians, including J. T. Brown, in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He made his living mainly outside of music for the rest of his life, only occasionally sitting in with the bands of his old friends around Chicago. His final recordings were made for Earwig Music in Chicago in the early 1990s. Johnson died in Chicago on February 21, 1995.

Henry Gray arrived in Chicago in 1946. He worked with Little Hudson’s Red Devil Trio and guitarist Morris Pejoe before moving into extensive work as a session musician in the recording studio behind Jimmy Reed, Bo Diddley, Billy Boy Arnold, Pejoe, Little Walter and Jimmy Rogers. In 1956, Gray joined Howlin’ Wolf’s band and was Wolf’s main piano player for twelve years in performance and on recordings. Also during this time, Gray became a session player for numerous artists on recordings made by Chess Records. Gray cut some sides under his own name for Chess, Parrot and Atomic H in the 50’s.

Jody Williams’ first instrument was the harmonica, which he swapped for the guitar after hearing Bo Diddley play at a talent show where they were both performing. Diddley, seven years his senior, took Williams under his wing and taught him the rudiments of guitar. Williams cut his teeth gigging with a string of blues musicians, notably Memphis Minnie, Elmore James and Otis Spann. After touring with West Coast piano player Charles Brown, Williams established himself as a session player with Chess Records. At Chess, Williams met Howlin’ Wolf, recently arrived in Chicago from Memphis, Tennessee, and was hired by Wolf as the first guitarist in his new Chicago-based band. A year later Hubert Sumlin moved to Chicago to join Wolf’s band, and the dual guitars of Williams and Sumlin are featured on Howlin’ Wolf’s 1954 singles, “Evil Is Going On”, and “Forty Four”, and on the 1955 releases, “Who Will Be Next” and “Come To Me Baby.” Williams cut some fine singles; in 1955 for Blue Lake, some brilliant sides for Chess in 1957 plus some sides for tiny labels in the early 60’s.

Smokey Smothers relocated to Chicago in 1946, and his debut stage performance occurred with Johnny Williams and Johnny “Man” Young. In the early part of the 1950s, Smothers played alongside his own cousin Lester Davenport, plus Arthur “Big Boy” Spires, Earl Hooker, Henry Strong, and Bo Diddley. In 1956 and 1957, Howlin’ Wolf invited Smothers to play as his rhythm guitarist on several Chess tracks, including “Who’s Been Talking,” “Tell Me,” “Change My Way,” “Goin’ Back Home,” “The Natchez Burning,” and “I Asked For Water.” Smothers secured a recording contract with Federal Records in August 1960. With Sonny Thompson as his record producer, and Freddie King on lead guitar, Smothers saw the resultant album, Smokey Smothers Sings the Backporch Blues released in 1962.

Little Johnny Jones was born in Jackson, Mississippi in 1924. He arrived in Chicago, Illinois in 1945 in the company of Little Walter and “Baby Face” Leroy Foster, and soon replaced pianist Big Maceo Merriweather in Tampa Red’s band after Merriweather suffered a stroke. He later backed Muddy Waters and recorded (on piano and vocals) with Waters for the Aristocrat label in 1949. From 1952 to 1956 he played and recorded with Elmore James, and in later years he worked with Howling Wolf, Billy Boy Arnold and Magic Sam, among others. He cut a handful of singles under his own name. Live in Chicago with Billy Boy Arnold was recorded in 1963 at Chicago’s Fickle Pickle club.

In his teenage years Eddie Shaw played tenor saxophone with local blues musicians such as Little Milton and Willie Love At a gig in Itta Bena, Mississippi, when the then 20-year-old Shaw performed, Muddy Waters invited him to join his Chicago based band. Shaw more or less divided the tenor saxophone duties with A.C. Reed. In 1972 he joined Howlin’ Wolf, leading his band, the Wolf Gang, and writing half the songs on Wolf’s last album, The Back Door Wolf. Shaw cut a handful of singles in the 50’s 60’s for small labels.

Detroit Junior began his career in Detroit, Michigan, backing touring musicians such as Eddie Boyd, John Lee Hooker, and Amos Milburn. Boyd brought him to Chicago, Illinois in 1956, where he spent the next twelve years. In the early 1970s, Detroit toured and recorded with Howlin’ Wolf. He waxed a number of singles through the 60’s for labels like Bea & Baby, Chess, Foxy, Palos, CJ and USA.