| February 17th, 2005 08:26 AM |
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| Ten Thousand Motels |
ABOUT HUBERT SUMLIN
Chicago is this bluesman's kind of town
Published in the Asbury Park Press 02/17/05
By RICHARD SKELLY CORRESPONDENT
Blues musician Hubert Sumlin will perform Saturday at the Paramount Theater in Asbury Park.
Call Hubert Sumlin a survivor, one of the few living links to the classic era of Chicago blues.
The 73-year-old guitarist, despite a bout with lung cancer, is spry and alert, talking in rapid-fire bursts. He has good recall about his quarter century of playing with Howlin' Wolf, the highly influential but under-recognized Chicago blues singer. Wolf, whose real name was Chester Burnett, died in 1976.
Some of the musicians Sumlin influenced appear on his new album for Tone-Cool/Artemis Records, "About Them Shoes." Guests include Eric Clapton, Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, Band drummer Levon Helm and even David Johansen, formerly of the punk-rock act the New York Dolls, who sings in a convincing Howlin' Wolf-styled voice.
"I just hope everybody enjoys it," Sumlin said modestly last week from his home in Wisconsin. "It took a long time to record this thing, actually about two years, and then it was another two years before it was released. I had to adjust my schedule to accommodate some of these guys."
Most of the tracks for "About Them Shoes" were recorded at Showplace Studios in Dover.
Of Johansen's soul-filled vocals — he travels with Sumlin's group, which put in an exceptionally fine performance at last June's Chicago Blues Festival — Sumlin said, "He's very good, he's very authentic and I never really (knew) he could sing blues so good."
These days, Sumlin, who will be at Asbury Park's Paramount Theater on Saturday — divides his time between homes in Wisconsin and northern New Jersey when he's not out on the road. Although his cancer has caused him to cut back his itinerary somewhat, he's now gearing up to go back out on the road to help sell albums. Two years ago in February, a big benefit was held for Sumlin at Asbury Park's Stone Pony nightclub.
Sumlin said he's even begun singing himself at some of his performances.
"For years, I was always a background person with Wolf, and I never had my mind on no singing at all," he said. "Really, I'm just a music freak. I don't consider myself a singer, but I'm trying now, 'cause the people are tellin' me they want me to sing, and I listen to what the people have to say."
Sumlin's new album opens with "I'm Ready," a track that features Clapton's guitar playing and singing, while the second track, "Still A Fool," showcases Richards on guitar and vocals.
"About Them Shoes" holds a variety of other pleasant surprises, including spirited performances by Johansen, Helm, Bob Margolin, harmonica player James Cotton and pianist David Maxwell.
Sumlin was born Nov. 16, 1931, in Greenwood, Miss. His mother gave him his first guitar when he was 8 years old and living with his family in Arkansas. After finding a beat-up Charley Patton recording alongside the road, Sumlin was off and running as a guitarist, playing with everyone he could and completely taken with blues.
He joined harmonica player James Cotton's band first before being asked by Wolf to come to Chicago and join his band. Sumlin recalls that while Wolf was illiterate and not well-educated, "He had a lot of streets smarts and mother-wit."
"By working with him all those years, I got to know what he was going to do and what he was really thinking," Sumlin said. "When I first got to know him, he asked, "Will you come to Chicago if I go?' And Cotton told me, "I know him better than you do, if he asks you to go to Chicago, you go.' "
Sumlin and Wolf's wife took a train from Memphis to Chicago in 1954. Sumlin joined Wolf's band there and stayed with him until Wolf's death due to diabetes complications 25 years later.
"Wolf was always very direct. He sent back word to me and got me out of Memphis. I remember I looked at Cotton, and he said, "Go ahead on with Wolf, you'll make more money with him than you will with me!' "
Asked about the culture shock of a big northern city like Chicago compared with the small towns in Mississippi and Arkansas where he grew up, Sumlin said it took him a few months to adjust to life in the big city.
"I was so nervous and scared in Chicago at first," he recalled, "but after Cotton got there with Muddy, he lived at Muddy's house for a long time, then I had a friend there. I remember when we got to the station in Chicago, (piano player) Otis Spann picked us up. He took us to Muddy's house. Wolf and Muddy was playin' cards when we got there. They got me an apartment right down the street, and they had my rent paid and my union card paid up for a year! So I was in heaven!"
At first, Sumlin was intimidated by musicians such as Little Walter, Eddie Boyd, Waters and the others who would frequent the city's then-bustling blues club scene.
"I was scared at first, but I adjusted pretty quick because I began sittin' in with some of these guys," he recalled. "Man, some of the best blues I ever heard in my life was at clubs on Maxwell Street, and lemme tell you, everybody was sellin' everything in the world that you could imagine, right there on Maxwell Street."
He soon began recording albums at the famed Chess Records studios with Howlin' Wolf, and that's where some of the great guitar riffs of all time were first created, for songs like "Smokestack Lightnin' " and "Wang Dang Doodle."
"Leonard Chess would tell Wolf what he wanted Wolf to do, and if he could do it, he would," Sumlin recalled of his days in the 1950s and '60s with the Chess brothers. "They learned not to pull anything on Wolf. They hollered at me two or three times early on. One day, Wolf said, "Cool it, man! I tell him what to do, you don't tell him what to do!' Wolf said I was doin' what I was supposed to be doin', and that was all right with him."
When asked about his March 5 show at B.B. King's, Sumlin said, "I can't really say who all is gonna show up there." Given that the guests on his new album include the likes of Clapton and Richards, they may be at the show.
"About Them Shoes" was a long time in the making. While he's happy with it and proud of it, Sumlin said, "My next album is going to be me doing one or two Wolf tunes. But mostly, it'll be more of Hubert."
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| February 17th, 2005 08:31 AM |
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| gimmekeef |
Thanks for posting the article.His new album is quite good.Without the blues veterans like Hubert and many others I often wonder if Rock and Roll and for sure the Stones would ever have happened.....at least in the form we seem to love so much... |
| February 17th, 2005 11:47 AM |
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| Ten Thousand Motels |
quote:
gimmekeef wrote:
Thanks for posting the article.His new album is quite good.Without the blues veterans like Hubert and many others I often wonder if Rock and Roll and for sure the Stones would ever have happened.....at least in the form we seem to love so much...
Well like the man said..."the blues had a baby and they named it rock n roll".
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| February 17th, 2005 01:46 PM |
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| gimmekeef |
Absolutely Ten T...!!!!!!!!! |
| February 17th, 2005 03:07 PM |
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| Martha |
<----------I think I better show the hell up.... |
| February 17th, 2005 05:01 PM |
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| FPM C10 |
"I can't really say who all is gonna show up there."
I love that part of the article!!!
Besides the OBVIOUS question of what guest guitarists might show, I'm also wondering who's gonna be playing piano. When I saw Hubert in June it was the old Jewish lady who plays with the Uppity Blues Women, who was also on the bill at the festival. She was OK, but she wasn't Pinetop Perkins or Johnny Johnson....
It's a win-win situation for me. The tickets say "Hubert Sumlin - David Johansen - Levon Helm" and that's enough for a guaranteed amazing night. Anybody else who shows up is just going to push it even further over the top. |
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