by Dylan Hawkins  (SHS)

      Howlin' Wolf, born Chester Arthur Burnett, was born in White Station, near West Point, Mississippi, on June 10, 1910.  He was one of six children in his family.  He, along with his brothers and sisters, was raised on a plantation where his parents worked ( Contemporary Musicians 111).  When Wolf was a child, his grandfather told him stories of wolves in Mississippi.  Once, something frightened him and he ran howling upstairs, which prompted his family to nickname him Howlin' Wolf.  Wolf's father presented him with his first guitar when he was eighteeen. With the exception of the World War I years, during which Wolf served in the Army and was stationed at Seattle, Washington, he spent most of his adult life (until the age of 38)  farming in Arkansas and Mississippi.  It wasn't until his father's death in 1949 that he devoted himself entirely to the blues ( Contemporary Musicians 113).
      Throughout his young life Wolf had his pick of blues greats for mentors: Charlie Patton lived on a nearby plantation and taught Wolf  much about showmanship. Sonny Boy Williamson married Wolf's stepsister and showed Wolf the ins and outs of the harmonica during the courtship.  Wolf himself was married briefly to Willie Brown's sister.  Wolf's childhood idol was singer Jimmie Rodgers, who was noted for his "blues-yodel."  Wolf tried to emulate the yodel but found that his efforts sounded more like a growl or a howl.  Wolf met legendary Delta blues singer Robert Johnson in Robinsonville, Mississippi , and they played together briefly.  Shortly thereafter Johnson was poisoned by a jealous girlfriend or husband (Withers 59).
      Wolf never read music.  He would sit on a metal chair in the studio, wearing big horn-rimmed glasses, shirt open, crading a beat-up guitar, playing according to what sounded right to him.  Typically, Wolf had to demonstrate what he wanted and run through it until his back-up players understood through sheer instinct.
      After nearly a quarter century of remarkable performances throughout the U.S. and abroad, Howlin' Wolf died of complications arising from kidney disease on January 10, 1976, in Chicago hospital; he was sixty-five.   He had sung the blues almost until the time of his death despite his illness; his last public appearance was with renowned guitarist B.B. King at the Chicago Amphitheater in November of 1975.

 

2005 Chicago Blue
2005 Rockin' The Blues: Live in Germany 1964
2003 Sings the Blues [Japan]
2003 Rockin' the Blues Live in Germany
2002 Chicago Blues
2002 In Concert
1996 I'm the Wolf
1996 Killing Floor [Collector's Edition]
1995 Live at Joe's 1973
1992 Wolf Is at Your Door
1991 Demon Drivin' Blues Man
1979 Heart Like a Railroad Steel
1979 Can't Put Me Out
1977 Howlin' Wolf [1977 Chess]
1974 London Revisited
1974 Howlin' Wolf Aka Chester Burnett
1973 The Back Door Wolf
1972 Live & Cookin' at Alice's Revisited
1971 London Howlin' Wolf Sessions
1971 Message to the Young
1971 The London Howlin' Wolf Sessions [Bonus Tracks]
1970 Goin' Back Home
1969 Evil
1969 This Is Howlin' Wolf's New Album
1969 The Howlin' Wolf Album
1968 The Super Super Blues Band
1967 The Original Folk Blues
1966 Big City Blues
1966 Live in Cambridge, 1966
1965 Poor Boy
1964 Live in Europe 1964
1962 Howlin' Wolf [1962 Chess]
1962 Howlin' Wolf Sings the Blues
1962 The Rockin' Chair Album
1962 Moanin' in the Moonlight