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Howling wolf musician8/8/2023 ![]() But a change in Wolf's sound that would alter everything that came after was soon in coming because when listeners tuned in for Wolf's show, the sound was up-to-the-minute electric. As a means of advertising his own local appearances, Wolf had a 15-minute radio show on KWEM in West Memphis, interspersing his down-home blues with farm reports and like-minded advertising that he sold himself. 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.īy 1948, he had established himself within the community as a radio personality. 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. ![]() The main source of Wolf's hard-driving, rhythmic style on harmonica came when Aleck "Rice" Miller ( Sonny Boy Williamson) married his half-sister Mary and taught him the rudiments of the instrument. Though he never came close to learning the subtleties of Patton's complex guitar technique, two of the major components of Wolf's style ( Patton's inimitable growl of a voice and his propensity for entertaining) were learned first hand from the Delta blues master. 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 was born in West Point, MS, and named after the 21st President of the United States (Chester Arthur). King certainly more technical expertise, but no one could match him for the singular ability to rock the house down to the foundation while simultaneously scaring its patrons out of its wits. ![]() A Robert Johnson may have possessed more lyrical insight, a Muddy Waters more dignity, and a B.B. Six foot three and close to 300 pounds in his salad days, the Wolf was the primal force of the music spun out to its ultimate conclusion. In the history of the blues, there has never been anyone quite like the Howlin' Wolf. ![]()
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