Howlin' Wolf - 'Smokestack Lightning The Complete Chess Masters 1951-1960'

 

Not unlike hurricanes, tornados, extreme temperatures, seismic and volcanic activity, Chester Arthur Burnett better known as Howlin' Wolf is a force of nature. 

Smokestack Lightning: The Complete Chess Masters 1951-1960, is a 97-track, four-disc limited-edition box set containing everything Wolf cut in his first decade of recording, with plenty of alternate takes, many of which never released in the U.S.   It traces Wolf’s evolution from an early 1950s style of Delta “country” blues with electric guitar added, to rockabilly influenced fast 1-4-5 blues in the mid-50s, to the beginning of his successful collaboration with Willie Dixon and Hubert Sumlin in Chicago, a period in which he took the blues in a new direction with a strong overlap toward rock music.  

Wolf was a second-generation Delta bluesman, heavily influenced by Charlie (Charley) Patton and taught harmonica by Rice Miller (Sonny Boy Williamson II).  His early musical idol was Blind Lemon Jefferson, and he played juke joints and house parties in the 1940s with Son House and Willie Brown.  By 1951, he was in Memphis, and was discovered by Sun Records owner Sam Phillips. It was Phillips who famously described Wolf’s brand of blues as “where the soul of man never dies.”  It’s worth noting that Wolf was already in his early forties when these sessions began.  He had a mature performance-hewn style and had spent a decade playing the ensemble form of blues that took hold in the 1940s. 

 

My introduction to Wolf, was the album "Howlin' Wolf" nicknamed, "The Rockin' Chair Album" by fans, this was followed by the "Moanin’ at Midnight" album.  The opening bars of the song "Moanin’ at Midnight" are my favorite in the entire blues genre.

This set has good audio quality, and an excellent booklet with essays by Peter Guralnick and Dick Shurman and discographical information (which I've included). 

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