Blues legend Howlin’ Wolf’s large physicality and personality dominated the stage. Tonight, his legacy will do the same.
In celebration of the late blues musician, Wilson Library’s Southern Folklife Collection will host a discussion and concert as part of their Blues Legacy series.
Curator Steve Weiss said the legacy of Howlin’ Wolf — born Chester Arthur Burnett — tells of Mississippi under Jim Crow laws in the early 20th century.
After Wolf got his break in Memphis, Tenn., in the early 1950s, he moved to Chicago and quickly achieved international fame, Weiss said.
“Wolf’s life story is intertwined with the larger experience of the Southern African-Americans in the 20th century,” he said.
Blues scholar Peter Guralnick — host of tonight’s talk — said Howlin’ Wolf’s music changed the world.
“It’s the kind of music that is going to change the world in ways that the world may very well not recognize,” he said.
Guralnick will also interview Knox Phillips, record producer and son of Sam Phillips — the man who discovered Howlin’ Wolf as well as Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash.
The concert will feature Eddie Shaw, leader of Howlin’ Wolf’s last band, as well as pianist Henry Gray, guitarist Jody Williams — who both played with Howlin’ Wolf in the ‘50s — and modern blues musician Alvin Youngblood Hart.
