Archive Review: Howlin’ Wolf’s Ain’t Gonna Be Your Dog (1994)

Howlin’ Wolf is one of those blues artists that even non-fans of the genre recognize. Born as Chester Burnett in 1910 in West Point, Mississippi, he picked up the guitar in his late teens, mentored by Blues legend Charlie Patton. A contemporary of Muddy Waters, Elmore James, and Sonny Boy Williamson, Burnett often played alongside these greats as they all traveled the same Southern blues circuit. It wasn’t until the late 1940s, after a stint in the army during World War II, that Burnett decided to pursue music as a full-time vocation.

Howlin’ Wolf’s Ain’t Gonna Be Your Dog

Moving northward to West Memphis, Arkansas, Howlin’ Wolf began recording sides for Chicago’s Chess label through Sam Phillips’ Memphis Recording Service. Ain’t Gonna Be Your Dog presents 14 of these Memphis cuts, recorded in the early ‘50s and featuring the young bluesman backed by talents such as Hubert Sumlin and James Cotton. By the time that Burnett moved to Chicago to become a full-fledged Chess label artist in the mid-‘50s, he was an established name in the genre. He would continue to be a major player in the Blues, a not-so-friendly competition arising between Wolf and another Chicago bluesman, Muddy Waters.

Wolf’s late ‘50s/early ‘60s output is what sealed his legend as a great blues performer and can be attributed not only to Wolf’s own charismatic talents, but to the instrumental contributions of long-time collaborator Sumlin and the skilled hand of songwriter Willie Dixon. Recording a number of Dixon compositions, Howlin’ Wolf made them his own with inspired guitar playing and his magnificent trademark mouth harp work.  
    

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Ain’t Gonna Be Your Dog pulls together 42 wonderful Howlin’ Wolf performances, from the aforementioned early Memphis sides to the landmark Chicago Chess sessions, including several cuts from the late 1960s as well as alternates and a few unreleased songs. It is an excellent companion to the earlier released Chess box set, and well worth getting for fans for whom that set served as an introduction to this brilliant and complex artist. Ain’t Gonna Be Your Dog, by covering almost twenty years of Howlin’ Wolf’s creative output, firms up any claims made for his considerable songwriting skills and instrumental talents. There is, perhaps, no better place for the music love to begin “rediscovering the blues” than here. (Chess Records/MCA Records)

Review originally published by R.A.D! music zine, 1994

CD Preview: Red Hot A Memphis Celebration of Sun Records

There can be no denying that Sam Phillips’ Sun Records imprint had an enduring and important influence on not only the creation and evolution of rock ‘n’ roll but on the promotion of blues and R&B music as well. Founded in Memphis, Tennessee in 1952, Sun Records is best-known as the initial home of the legend, Elvis Presley. But Sun can also brag of releasing records by then-unknown musical giants like Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins; producer Phillips’ love of R&B also prompted him to record essential early sides by Howlin’ Wolf, Little Milton, Roscoe Gordon, and Memphis’s own Rufus Thomas, among many others.

On June 16th, 2017 the Americana Music Society will release Red Hot: A Memphis Celebration of Sun Records in honor of the Bluff City’s homegrown indie label which changed the direction of popular music. Proceeds from the CD will benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital® which treats children with cancer and other life-threatening diseases. The tribute album was co-produced by roots-rocker Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars, and Tamara Saviano, a Nashville-based writer and producer and the author of Without Getting Killed or Caught: The Life and Music of Guy Clark.

Red Hot: A Memphis Celebration of Sun Records was recorded at the two legendary recording studios owned by Phillips – the original Memphis Recording Service, later known as Sun Studio and opened in 1950, and the Sam Phillips Recording Service, opened in 1959 – and the album features performances by a slate of talented roots ‘n’ blues artists. Luther Dickinson and his brother Cody are the sons of late Memphis music legend Jim Dickinson, who recorded for Sun Records in 1966 with his garage-rock band the Jesters. The Red Hot house band includes Memphis singer/bassist Amy LaVere, singer/guitarist John Paul Keith, keyboardist Rick Steff of Lucero as well as the Dickinson brothers on guitar and drums.

Along with vocal performances by Luther Dickinson, John Paul Keith and Amy LaVere, Red Hot includes contributions by Valerie June, Shawn Camp, Jimbo Mathus, Alvin Youngblood Hart, and the great Bobby Rush. Check out the Red Hot website for more info on the project and then order this worthwhile CD from Amazon.com.

L-R: Luther Dickinson, Valerie June,
Jimbo Mathus, Rick Steff (seated)