Happy Birthday Howlin' Wolf!

The force of nature that was Chester Arthur Burnett, better known as Chicago blues legend Howlin' Wolf, was born this day in 1910 in West Point, Mississippi. Named after the 21st President of the United States, Burnett's father was a farmer in the hardscrabble Mississippi Delta. Burnett was brought up as a sharecropper, but an accidental meeting with Delta blues great Charley Patton set the future Wolf on the blues highway.

Wolf's wildcat growl of a voice and dynamic performing style were taken directly from Patton's influence, while relative-by-marriage Sonny Boy Williamson taught the twenty-something-year-old musician the rudiments of the harmonica. After a four-year hitch in the Army during World War II, Wolf launched his blues career in earnest after settling in West Memphis, Arkansas. His earliest recordings were cut for Sam Phillips' Sun Records label, and it wasn't until 1953 that Wolf packed his bags and headed for Chicago, where he would cement his immense legacy during the 1950s and '60s.

Join us today in celebrating the life and music of Howlin' Wolf, one of the greatest voices of the Chicago blues style.

(Check out photographer Sandy Guy Schoenfeld's website for some great Howlin' Wolf photos)

Related Content:
Howlin' Wolf profile
Howlin' Wolf - Rockin' The Blues CD review

Photo copyright Sandy Guy Schoenfeld, courtesy Universal Music