Howlin' Wolf - The Memphis Sessions (2007) [Hi-Res]

...The tracks included here were recorded over a ten -month period, from December, 1951 to October, 1952. None are less than brilliant. From the Jump Blues of ‘All In The Mood’ and ‘That’s All Right’ to the emphatic, soulful delivery, on such tracks as ‘Bluebird’, ‘California Blues’, and ‘Decoration Day’, these titles showcase the Wolf as the transitional link between the country blues style and its evolution to the urban blues which would become more fully developed in Chicago later in that same decade.
With his departure from Memphis to the more lucrative Chicago Area, Wolf followed in the footsteps of many other Memphis-area bluesmen. As a result of this migration, from 1954 onwards Phillips shifted his focus to White Rockabilly and Country performers, many of whom used Howlin’ Wolf’s vocal delivery as a blueprint for their own unbridled Sun recordings.
The similarities between Billy Lee Riley’s ‘Red Hot’, Warren Smith’s ‘Miss Froggie’, and Smokey Joe Baugh’s ‘The Signifying Monkey’ to the music The Wolf put down at 706 Union Avenue cannot be denied. Howlin’ Wolf later attained iconic status, due in no small part to his European tours of the 60’s and subsequent adulation of a new generation of Blues enthusiasts. He passed away on January 6th, 1976, having been ill for several years. Like the man himself, his music remains larger than life, the very definition of soul and expressiveness. There are none better.
We offer these recordings to you in stunning 96/24 in the original historic mono...