Search - Howlin' Wolf :: Rides Again

The best blues recordings ever made!

Lee Hartsfeld | Central Ohio, United States | 04/22/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"These are Howlin' Wolf's best sides, made for Modern Records in 1951 and 1952. It follows, logically, that these are the best blues sides ever made. This is the stuff that appeared over the years on Crown, Kent, and United, albeit with a few extra sides thrown in here. It's great to hear these in comparatively decent fidelity. There is the glorious "House Rockin' Boogie" ("I'll be in your town when I get there"); the mersmerizing "Crying at Daybreak" (an earlier, superior "Smokestack Lightning"); the devastating "I Want Your Picture"; the killer-guitar-work classic "Worried About My Baby"; The Robert-Johnsonesque "Driving This Highway"; and the compelling and enigmatic "I'm the Wolf," THE recorded example of repetition as art. This is the real stuff, not the effete 1960s and 1970s imitations by Brits substituting amplifier drive for the musical kind. No large speakers or large crowds. Just the blues."