Howlin' Wolf

Two new vivid collections of blues from Chess records. The Wolf album is the latest in a
long line of recent blues Super Session enclaves (includes Clapton, Winwood, Wyman and
Watts) that rates among the most successful of these black-meets-white get-togethers. The
Waters two-record set is sort of a BEST OF anthology that culls, from various earlier Waters
albums, Muddy's best performances from 1950 on down to a couple of live cuts f... More >

A supersession with a conscience, or maybe just a reason for being, in which a whole raft of rich English rock and rollers--the cream: the core band is Clapton, Winwood, Wyman, and Watts--get behind the man who taught them their sh*t if anyone did. The material is classic, the playing early Stones with chops--committed to a slightly speedy shuffle, a little lighter and more ornate (horns on two cuts) than the old Chess stuff. Wolf's voice sounds a little light as well--doesn't threaten to shatter the bones. Maybe he didn't want to scare the white boys. (Grade: A-)