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Now That’s How You Sing The Blues…

Sun, Apr 22, 2007

Listening to the incomparable Howlin’ Wolf belt out Shake It For Me really drives home what’s missing from so much of what we consider blues today––while the art of blues guitar has arguably seen some incredible new heights in the decades since this recording was made, the utter lack of passion heard in modern blues vocals usually just leaves me cold.

As long as countless contemporary blues players continue to “phone in” their vocals like an afterthought, I’ll take the big, sweaty, heartbreaking howl of the Wolf any day.

Posted Under: Guitars, Music

3 Comments For This Post

  1. Ignacio Says:
    April 22nd, 2007 at 1:27 pm

    And thus the “howlin’ ” in Howlin’ Wolf. He was such a great.

    You know, a good underrated blues singer today is Robert Cray. I’ve always liked him, but his singing gets better as he ages. I saw him open for his buddy Eric Clapton a few months ago, and boy is he a good singer. He actually came back on stage for Eric Clapton’s encore and sang Crossroads.

    Nice video…

    Best, Ignacio

  2. Stratoblogster Says:
    April 22nd, 2007 at 11:48 pm

    Amen! I didn’t realize that Wolf played guitar. He’s groovin’ that rhythm hard! If those guys weren’t makin’ it with music, their only alternative was usually tough manual labor. Maybe that’s what inspires such passion. Blues wasn’t simply a “lifestyle accessory” for them— it was survival.

  3. Larry Miller Says:
    April 24th, 2007 at 8:57 am

    You are a credit to your upbringing.

    Keep howlin

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