Search - Howlin Wolf :: Live & Cokin (At Alices Revisited)

Great live Wolf finally available again

Docendo Discimus | Vita scholae | 09/26/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album has been quite hard to get a hold of for a while, but here it is, remastered and featuring Howlin' Wolf backed by his powerful early-70s combo, the Wolf Gang, which included guitarists Hubert Sumlin and L.V. Williams, bassist Dave Myers, drummer extraordinaire Fred Below, legendary piano player Sunnyland Slim, and saxist Eddie Shaw.



Wolf himself was in his early sixties at the time this recording was made, and starting to suffer from ill health, but he could still rise to his former heights when it came to winning over an audience.

This album was originally issued on LP in 1972, and featured eight songs. Two excellent bonus tracks were added when it was re-released on CD, extending the running time to just under 65 minutes, and Wolf and his band sound thoroughly inspired all the way through. Howlin' Wolf doesn't perform any of his classic hits, but once you slip this disc into your CD player and turn up the volume you will hardly notice. These powerful live versions of songs like the driving "I Didn't Know", Big Bill Broonzy's "I Had A Dream" (in a thumping high-octane rendition), and the gritty "Don't Laugh At Me" are every bit as great as any Willie Dixon-penned R&B hit.

Opening with the eight-minute "When I Laid Down I Was Troubled", Wolf and the band swagger through one blues powerhouse after another, mostly mid-tempo numbers with a few slow grinds thrown in for good measure, like the supremely funky "The Big House". Wolf's vocal performance on that one is one of his best ever; he stretches out comfortably for over seven minutes, singing certain verses he likes two or three times as the band locks in with deadly authority. And the other bonus cut, "Mr Airplane Man", is Wolf working his one-riff voodoo for all it's worth, a swinging, soulful sax riff and a groove deep enough to get lost in.



You won't find a tougher, more enjoyable live blues record anywhere. Muddy's Newport album is great, and so is John Lee Hooker's "Live At The Café Au Go Go (And Soledad Prison)", but this pulsating steam engine is live blues at its very best and grooviest. The sound is not truly stellar, in spite of the remastering, but once you turn it up and start rocking back and forth in your seat with your eyes closed, you won't care one bit."

One of the top ten cds

reedman | holt, michigan USA | 11/03/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is vintage wolf. His long time sax player, eddie shaw, and of course hubert on guitar really smoke. This cd has great sound (for 1972) , remastered, and in stereo. Wolf's voice never did suffer even the following the year after a car accident. Well worth the price-my favorite wolf cd, with "real folk blues" a second. Combine with magic sam's "Black Magic" make for some rockin' blues"