Hubert Sumlin – Who’s gonna share them shoes?
But what struck Sumlin most about those new Opry acts — particularly for where he’d help take the Wolf band when he adopted the “no picks” lead style — was the way the instrumentalists and singers interacted.
“Oh yeah; that’s it,” he acknowledges. “I’m gonna tell you something: The way they played, man, it was with their voice; that’s what I’m talking about.”
Sumlin reports being thrilled when he eventually met Monroe at folk festivals years later, including the Mariposa Festival in Toronto in the summer of 1968. By then, he was the experienced and inimitable lead guitarist of Wolf’s band, which now featured a pair of saxes instead of harmonica, hard-driving beats, and Sumlin’s inventive leads, behind a Wolf still howling and stalking the stage as in his prime, even as he approached sixty. Tired of doing so much firing and fining, the Wolf had put Sumlin in charge of band hiring by then.
The new lyrics were often by Willie Dixon, sometimes foisted on the band by Chess without Wolf’s support, and sometimes credited to Dixon merely for slight rewrites of songs the band had performed for years. Sumlin emphasizes that the music matched to Dixon’s words was developed by the band members themselves — which now included drummer Sam Lay, Buddy Guy on rhythm guitar, Andrew McMahon on bass, and Eddie Shaw on tenor sax.
The sound and sentiments were so fresh and propulsive that while some blues purists were unnerved, Howlin’ Wolf continued to have hits long past the point the Waters band did, competing well against the ferocious new blues of Magic Sam, Freddy King, Otis Rush, and Guy himself — and appealing to rockers.
The band took these sounds to a waiting Europe in the fall of 1964, and was astonished to find a shining neon sign welcoming Howlin’ Wolf at London’s Heathrow Airport. Blues fans over there knew who Sumlin was, by name and track credit. Some kids calling themselves the Rolling Stones, after Muddy’s song, met them as they landed, obtaining Wolf’s blessing for having just recorded “Little Red Rooster”; three weeks later, it became the Stones’ second #1 U.K. hit.
The Wolf band toured across Europe playing exceptional shows to respectful audiences, including the West German TV appearances captured on the American Folk Blues DVDs. Sumlin was among those who performed and recorded past the Wall, in East Berlin. The emerging lights of “British Blues” followed the shows closely, and Sumlin began forging friendships that stuck.
On a return trip to England, he first met Jimi Hendrix, as Jimi was setting up his band the Experience.
“He said, ‘Hubert, I love that one tune you made, man, ‘I should’ve quit you…a long time ago…’ And he started playing ‘Killin’ Floor’ with his teeth! He played it better than me! I started saying to myself, ‘Uh-oh, I’m going to be fired again!'”
But you wonder; when he started to hear the likes of Keith Richards or Eric Clapton taking on the music he made, what did he really think, some 40 years ago?
“I’ll tell you; they’d already learned a lot. They’d listened to the records, but they learned to play it like they want to play — which was a good thing. When it came to those London Sessions, this is what really started the thing with me about them guys.”
For the celebrated 1971 London Howlin’ Wolf Sessions LP, Chess lined up Richards, Clapton, Bill Wyman and Steve Winwood to play along with Howlin’ Wolf — and this was when Clapton stepped in and said he wouldn’t be appearing if Hubert Sumlin wasn’t on that record. And so he was. The Stones got Howlin’ Wolf in prime-time U.S. television on “Shindig” in 1965 (with house guitarist James Burton playing the leads), and had Sumlin play Madison Square Garden with them in 2003.
“Look, them guys didn’t forget,” Sumlin says. “Keith Richards dedicated hisself to these blues, and the guy is also vice versa; I don’t forget that these guys took me to Madison Square Garden and all these things. So I said, these sorts of guys can maybe be on my CD one day. And so sure enough — here we are.”
Give and take.
Barry Mazor is a senior editor for No Depression.