Howlin' Wolf Born: 1910 Died: 1975

Chester Arthur Burnett was born in the hill country of Mississippi in a town called White Station.  His parents, Leon and Gertrude abandoned the boy when they divorced.  He was turned over to the tender mercies of his great uncle, a stearn, mean-spirited hell fire and brimstone country preacher.  It was in his uncle's church where Chester learned to sing by joining the choir.

At 13 he ran away from his uncle and rejoined his father who had relocated to the Mississippi Delta.  At this time (1923) the southern blues scene was in full blossom.  He was able to hear Charley Patton play, as Patton lived nearby.  His father bought Chester a guitar when he turned 18 and convinced Charley Patton to give him some lessons.  Chester also received harmonica lessons from Rice Miller who would later achieve fame on the King Biscuit Flour Hour as "Sonny Boy Williamson II".

He learned much of his other skills by listening to records.  He was very impressed with the Mississippi Shieks, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Tampa Red, Blind Blake and even Jimmie Rodgers.  During lulls in the farming season Burnett would travel around the Delta with the musicians he had learned from along with the small group of Robert Johnson, Son House and Willie Brown.  The name Howlin' Wolf derived from his ferocity on the stage.  A very large man at 6' 2" and as much as 275 lbs, Wolf would belt out a rough loud powerful sound accented at intervals by a screaming harmonica solo.

He learned to play the harmonica and guitar simultaneously using a contraption that would later become popular with the "one man bands".  He continued to travel and play intermittently until he was drafted into the army at the start of America's involvement in World War II.  Although not in combat Wolf suffered some sort of mental and emotional breakdown in 1943 and was given a medical discharge from the Army.

He and his then girlfriend moved to Lebanon, Tennessee where, two years later, she also suffered some sort of breakdown and wound up in an institution.  After that Wolf returned to the life he had known before the army, working with his father and traveling with the local bluesment.

In 1948 Wolf formed a band in West Memphis, Arkansas which included future greats James Cotton, Junior Parker and Matt "Guitar" Murphy (the same Matt Murphy that co-starred in the movie "The Blues Brothers.).  Much as Sonny Boy Williamson sang on the radio to promote King Buiscit Flour, Wolf landed a job singing on a local radio station promoting farm machinery.  This brought him to the attention of Sam Phillips who had recently left Chess Records and moved south to record local talent.

In 1951 Wolf recorded his first two songs, Moanin' at Midnight and How Many More Years.  Phillips simply recorded the songs, then leased them to Chess Records for distribution.  After two years of recording Howlin' Wolf left Phillips and hired on with Chess directly.  Phillips always maintained that Wolf was his greatest discovery, greater than Elvisp Presley.

Joining Chess in Chicago was the beginning of a major breakthrough, not just for Wolf, but for the whole blues scene.  The face of what is and is not blues changed permanently with combos forming that looked a lot like future rock bands.  The creative mileu included Wolf, Muddy Waters and the great Willie Dixon who wrote such classics for Wolf as Spoonful, Little Red Rooster and Back Door Man.  During most of his Chicago career he was backed by guitar great and personal friend Hubert Sumlin.

Wolf married Lillie Handley.  The two had been together for seven years and Wolf had raised Lillie's daughters like his own.  A responsible husband and father he was also a great band leader.  He got the best deals possible from the record company and made sure his band paid income tax and social security.  Off the stage Wolf was as middle class as one could be.  The same year he married Lillie he toured Europe, the following year the Rolling Stones asked him to appear on the American Top 40 show "Shindig"  Probably his greatest treat was to record "The London Howlin' Wolf Sessions" which inclued the cream of the crop of young British rockers.  Among those there were the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton.  It was Wolf's best selling album ever.

Chester Burnett virtually played himself to death.  After a performance at the Chicago Amphitheatre which featured a whose who of modern blues he received a five minute standing ovation.  He had crawled across the stage during "Crawling King Snake".  That and other antics exhausted him and he had to be revived by paramedics.

The life of Howlin' Wolf would only last another 2 months.  He died during surgery on January 10, 1976.  Chester Arthur Burnett, more beloved that the U.S. President for whom he was named was laid to rest in Hines Illinois.  He is now a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame.

By this time Howlin' Wolf was 60 years old and brought low by a series of heart attacks.  A serious automobile wreck worsened his health even more.  With failing kidneys Wolf ended up on dialysis once every three days which was attended to by his wife Lillie.  Even then he continued to play and record.  He recorded one live album in 1972 and recorded his last studio album in 1973.