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My apologies, yet again this week, for another last-minute Blues Roots post—which is disappointing, considering that yesterday would have been Hubert Sumlin’s 85th birthday, I was aware of this for a while and there are many aspects of his productive career that are worth deep exploration. He was one of the main guitarists who was emulated by rockers in the ’60s (and before that, James Burton’s guitar part on “Suzie-Q” was probably inspired by Hubert Sumlin’s guitar part on “Smokestack Lightning”). Confidential to Johan, instead of going from E up to G, go from E down to D—also grab both G and D.
Hubert Sumlin first met Howlin’ Wolf near Memphis, Tennessee, when he fell in through a window where he was secretly listening, onto the stage where the big man was performing. The Wolf intervened with the club owner on behalf of his teenage fan, which meant Hubert would experience that concert from on the stage instead of standing on a stack of Coca-Cola crates as he was planning. Willie Johnson was probably the guitarist that night. After the show, Howlin’ Wolf walked to Hubert’s house with him, and he intervened there too, asking Hubert’s mother not to punish him.
Willie Johnson didn’t move to Chicago with his boss in 1953, so Howlin’ Wolf needed a new guitarist; he hired Chicagoan Jody Williams. Hearing raves about the band Hubert formed with harpist James Cotton in Memphis, he invited Hubert to Chicago as second guitarist. When Jody Williams left the band, Hubert was THE guitarist for all but about a year until Howlin Wolf’s death in January 1976. During that time away from Howlin’ Wolf, Hubert Sumlin played with Muddy Waters.
I’m going to craft a far better Hubert Sumlin Blues Roots to make up for shortchanging you here.
This playlist begins with the clip from Living the Blues that I want to feature for its profound comments and a version of “Howling for My Darling” in G at about 3 minutes in that makes it quite easy to learn. The rest are gravy.
I think I’ve posted this playlist before. It’s still a work in progress, a little further along, featuring the milieu that had a huge influence on both Howlin’ Wolf and Hubert Sumlin.
Don D.
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