Howlin' Wolf: Message to the Young [CHESS / ELEMENTAL MUSIC]

Why you'll love it

This reissue brings back one of Wolf's late Chess studio albums. Producers Cash McCall and Sonny Thompson cut it at Ter Mar Recording in Chicago, wrapping the blues in horns, organ and soul arrangements.

About the album

Chess spent the late 1960s looking for ways to bring its blues giants to younger listeners, and Message to the Young puts the plan right there in the title. In September and October 1970 Howlin' Wolf went into Ter Mar with McCall and Thompson, who arranged and conducted the sessions themselves.

Thompson plays piano, John Jeremiah adds organ, Bryce Roberson and Jon Stocklin share the guitars, and Bob Crowder and Tyrone Smith hold down bass and drums, with a horn section and singers on top. "If I Were a Bird" opens the album, "I Smell a Rat" and "Romance Without Finance" have plenty of strut, and Wolf still finds room for harmonica. Most of the songs came from Thompson and Sarah Lewis, and the title track was co-written with Chess veteran Ralph Bass.

It's a fascinating chapter from Wolf's later years, with that voice as enormous as ever, and at just over half an hour the album wastes no motion. He was 60 when it came out, which suggests the real message to the young was to keep up.

Also at Kops: more Howlin' Wolf on vinyl · browse Blues

Tracklist

Listen

On Chess / Elemental Music (cat# 620897), a reissue of the 1971 album.