Description

Rolling Stone Magazine ranked HOWLIN’ WOLF at Number 51 on their list of The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Sam Phillips of Sun Records said, “The soul of this man will never die”, and he’s been proved correct; Wolf’s songs are still played nightly by blues bands across the world. Born Chester Arthur Burnett into a Mississippi farming community, he ran away from home at age 13, was functionally illiterate, yet became one of the most influential and financially successful of all bluesmen, driving to Chicago to join Chess Records in his own car with 4000 dollars in his pocket. In his 40s he went back to school, studied accountancy and business and was probably unique amongst bluesmen at that time in paying band members a decent salary and even benefits such as health insurance, which of course allowed him to employ the very best musicians. He came to Britain in 1964 as part of the American Folk Blues Festival and The Rolling Stones recording of his Little Red Rooster reached Number One in the same year. Wolf died in 1976 age 65.