The Chess Box [Box] (CD - 1991)

This, the fifth in the series of Chess boxes, contains 71 tracks sequenced chronologically from 1951-1973. Digitally remastered from original master tapes and 78s, it includes two previously unknown solo acoustic guitar and vocal performances ("Ain't Going Down That Dirt Road" and "I'm the Wolf"), four segments from HOWLIN' WOLF TALKS and 17 tracks either previously unreleased in the US or on LP.

Personnel includes: Howlin' Wolf (vocals, guitar, harmonica); Willie Johnson, Hubert Sumlin (guitar); J.T. Brown (tenor saxophone); James Cotton (harmonica); Hosea Lee Kennard, Lafayette Leake, Johnny Jones (piano); Willie Dixon, Buddy Guy (bass); Willie Steele, Sam Lay (drums).

28 of the tracks are in stereo, including previously unissued versions of "Killing Floor", "Spoonful" and "I Ain't Superstitious". The package includes a 32-page LP-sized booklet, with 2 sets of liner notes containing a biography, track-by-track annotation, a Chess discography and rare photos.

This three-CD box set currently rates as the best -- and most digestible -- overview of Howlin' Wolf's career. Disc one starts with the Memphis sides that eventually brought him to the label, including hits like "How Many More Years," but also compiling unissued sides that had previously only been available on vinyl bootlegs of dubious origin and fidelity. The disc finishes with an excellent cross section of early Chicago sessions, including classic Wolf tracks like "Evil," "Forty Four," "I'll Be Around," and "Who Will Be Next?" Disc two picks it up from there, guiding listeners from mid- to late-'50s barnburners like "The Natchez Burning" and "I Better Go Now" to the bulk of the Willie Dixon classics. The final disc runs out the last of the Dixon sessions into mid-'60s classics like "Killing Floor," taking the listener to a nice selection of his final recordings. A really nice bonus on this box set is the inclusion on the first two discs of snippets from a 1968 Howlin' Wolf interview and two performances of Wolf playing solo acoustic. If you've heard the sound of the Wolf, here's where you go to get a lot of it in one place. Definitely not the place to start (unless you have money to burn), but maybe just the perfect place to end up. ~ Cub Koda

Chester "Howlin' Wolf'" Burnett's razor-like voice was one of the signature sounds of post-war Chicago electric blues, and the three-disc CHESS BOX is the definitive document of his landmark recordings for the label that the Chess brothers made into the ultimate conduit for classic Chicago blues. Though coming from similar stylistic roots to his contemporary Muddy Waters, the Wolf had more of an edge to his sound. Where Muddy came across as a confident, grounded man, Burnett often seemed desperate and slightly crazed, as if he might come unhinged at any moment. The physically huge Burnett was indeed an intimidating presence, and such tracks as "Evil" and "How Many More Years" bear a dark, almost scary aura. The Wolf's monolithic status is further borne out when one considers how many of the songs included here ("Smokestack Lightnin'," "Killing Floor," "Spoonful") were the building blocks for nearly every important US and UK rock band that began in the first half of the 1960s. THE CHESS BOX is an absolutely essential slab of blues history. minimize