Real
Change News
June 27, 2005
|
Howlin ’ Wolf put the beast in blues
Last month, on what would have been The Wolf’s 95th birthday, Thunder’s
Mouth Press issued a paperback edition of James Segrest’s and Mark Hoffman’s
biography, Moanin’ at Midnight: The Life and Times of Howlin’ Wolf.
Originally published in 2004, now revised and updated, it’s a fine work,
tautly and thoughtfully written, based on careful research, remarkable
scholarship, and hundreds of interviews with those who knew, loved, and
quarreled with The Wolf. It will remain the most complete and reliable
source we’ll have on this unforgettable performer and musician.
But Moanin’ at Midnight achieves something more that’s worth our
attention. Segrest and Hoffman present Howlin’ Wolf as a complex,
thoughtful, troubled, and finally heroic human being.
Howlin’ Wolf was a courageous man and a giant of American music. He
deserves a first-rate biography, and now, thanks to James Segrest and Mark
Hoffman, he’s got one.
—John Siscoe
©2005
Real
Change News |
NBC Action News
June 9, 2005
|
Summer 2005 reading choices:
Titles that are catching buzz in the publishing world and among
readers:
Veteran biographers offer a compelling look at the highs and lows of the
Mississippi-born Chester Burnett, one of America’s
legendary bluesmen
—Allen Pierleoni
©2005
NBC Action News
|
Dallas Morning News
December 27, 2004
|
Top Five Works of Nonfiction, 2004
A huge, gritty chunk of black Americana.
—Jerome Weeks, book critic
©2004
Dallas Morning News
|
Cox News Service |
Best Bios and Memoirs of 2004
Moanin’ at Midnight: A tribute to a legendary performer who
escaped a life of poverty and abuse in Mississippi to become one of the most
famous bluesmen of his time.
-Don O’Briant
©2004
Cox News Service and
The Monterey Herald
|
WGBH radio, Boston
December 2004
|
2004 Winter Holiday Picks
This book offers a very detailed look into the life of this enigma of
postwar blues, taking great strides to portray Wolf as a musician, a
personality, and as a human being.
—Brendan Hogan, host of Blues on WGBH
©2004
WGBH, Boston,
MA
|
The News & Observer,
Raleigh, NC
December 3, 2004
|
Best Non-Fiction of 2004
A rollicking biography of the blues singer known as Howlin’ Wolf.
-J. Peder Zane, Book Reviews editor
©2004
The News & Observer
|
The Providence Phoenix
December 3, 2004
|
Getting Inside Howlin’ Wolf
Moanin’ at Midnight cuts through the mythology of Wolf as a
bad-ass monster to find the wounded child within the bear of a man...During
his last years, Wolf often declared he’d be better known after he was dead
than during his lifetime. The
proliferation of CD reissues of his recordings has made that a prophecy, at
least for his music. Now, this book from Segrest and Hoffman ensures that
Wolf the man will also be remembered, and remembered well.
|
Red Lick Records, UK
November 26, 2004 |
Unputdownable!
The one we’ve all been waiting for...The definitive writing about
Howlin’ Wolf, with great, flowing text and filled with facts and
reminiscences. It’s simply the true story of a great man and a great
musician.
-Don O’Briant
©2004
Cox News Service and
The Monterey Herald
|
The Dallas Morning News
November 20, 2004
|
Bluesman’s Portrait Is a Howling Success
By and large–and in his case, very large–the beginnings of rock ’n’ roll
can be traced back to the day in July 1951 when a 6-foot-3, nearly 300-pound
black man named Chester Burnett first entered a recording studio in Memphis,
Tenn....
In Moanin’ at Midnight, James Segrest and Mark
Hoffman take what could have easily been a specialists’ book and fashion
instead a thoroughly engrossing portrait of a gruff, often contradictory
individual.
|
Flint Journal
October 31, 2004 |
“Midnight” Brings Blues Legend to Life
Wolf’s rise from crushing poverty to international superstar is a wild
soap opera of a story with enough drama for a dozen novels. “Moanin’ at
Midnight” is much more than musical biography. It’s truly a legend brought
to life.
-Doug Allyn
© 2004 Flint Journal |
Shepherd Express
October 21, 2004
|
Fierce, Growling Blues
As a cultural history, Moanin at Midnight is a substantial
achievement...This long-overdue account of his life manages to portray the
many sides of this complex personality, so exciting to Sam Phillips more
than a half-century ago and still compelling to blues fanatics today.
-Michael Schumacher
©2004
Shepherd Express, Milwaukee, WI
|
Mix Online
Oct 18, 2004
|
Glimpses Of Genius
Moanin’ At Midnight is the first (and I’d venture to guess, last)
authoritative biography of Wolf—the authors interviewed nearly everyone
still living who either knew him or played with him....The book does a
marvelous job of capturing the feeling of the clubs and juke joints Wolf
played coming up, and it goes into exhaustive detail describing just about
every band line-up and recording session he was involved in.
-Blair Jackson
©2004
Mix Online
|
The Clarion-Ledger,
October 3, 2004
|
Grand Literature
Beyond being a moving read to all non-fiction readers, it is exciting,
and notable for blues fans and musicians...The authors clearly offer readers
a well-documented biography. It includes footnotes, a discography and a
sessionography, as well as bibliography.
Chester Burnett strove to learn, to excel and to
maintain in his own contorted way. Moanin’ at Midnight suggests he
reached that goal.
He was truly legendary...and he was untiringly loyal to
his role as a musician and performer and to his last wife, Lillie. The book
is grand literature.
|
The Daily Camera
September 26, 2004 |
A Complex Portrait of One of Blues’ Greatest Legends
Sun Records founder Sam Phillips always will be remembered for being the
man who discovered Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis. But the
late music maverick considered blues legend Howlin’ Wolf his greatest
find....Although Segrest and Hoffman never pretend they’re detached
observers, they don’t let their devotion for the blues legend keep them from
offering a compelling portrait of a man who could be as irritable and
downright mean as he was generous and warm.
-Michael Cote
©2004
The Daily Camera, Boulder, CO |
The Austin Chronicle
September 10, 2004
|
A Stellar Biography of a
Musical Goliath
Hands down, this new biography is the best on the seminal blues master.
Sure, it’s also the first book about the Wolf’s place in both the blues
pantheon and the story of popular American music. But even if there were an
extant tome about the 250-plus pound, 6-foot-3-inch musician formerly known
as Big Foot Chester, Segrest and Hoffman’s book would still stand as giant
as its subject’s size-16 Chuck Taylors. Moanin’ at Midnight took 10
years to research, and it shows. There are copious interviews, quotes from
the Tail Dragger himself, and recording session notes that help paint a
vivid picture of Wolf’s towering influence....There are enough footnotes to
compete with any academic text, yet Moanin’ at Midnight reads as
smooth and complete as one of Wolf’s breathy harp solos.
|
MOJO magazine
September, 2004
|
Superb Biography of the Bluesman Sam Phillips Thought Could
Have
Changed Rock ’n’ Roll History
Howlin’ Wolf was a huge, charismatic figure, but he was not particularly
communicative with journalists, and his first biographers might have been
content to round up some secondary sources and construct a workmanlike
chronicle of a life that began in tenant-farmer poverty in Mississippi and
ended in Chicago in middleclass comfort. Fortunately, the Wolf and we have
been luckier than that. The authors seem to have talked to every surviving
family member, every sideman Wolf ever employed, every English beat-group
muso who accompanied him. What’s astonishing is how candid and revealing
their stories are: about his fragmented home life, his dogged pursuit of
selfbetterment through guitar lessons and college courses, his carnivalesque
stage act, his almost paternal relationship with his wayward, brilliant
guitarist Hubert Sumlin. The recordings, too, are vividly described, but
succinctly: it’s the story not of a studio shooting star but of a day-by-day
bandleader in an unforgiving business—and, as such, a model of blues
biography.
|
The Houston Chronicle,
August 5, 2004
|
Brings Prototypical Bluesman to Vivid Life
Relying on research, more than 250 fresh (and revealing) interviews
and—of course—the music, James Segrest and Mark Hoffman do a solid job of
telling the story of Wolf’s amazing journey....Part music journalism and
part social history, Moanin’ at Midnight is an insightful—and long
overdue—look at an utterly unique and influential performer.
|
The Buffalo News
July 25, 2004
|
Following the Wolf to Death’s Door
“After I’m dead and gone, you see, well, these undergrowth’ll be sayin’,
‘I heard of this cat, but I never seen
him. Here his name and here his picture in the book!’” So said Howlin’ Wolf
in Boston in 1973, just three years before his death. And he was right.
These words open James Segrest and Mark Hoffman’s breathtakingly
comprehensive and utterly compelling biography, Moanin’ at Midnight: The
Life and Times of Howlin’ Wolf, and tell a great deal about the life and
legacy of the man known as the Wolf....This is beautiful, stirring music
criticism, a testament that Segrest and Hoffman’s work here is not just
exhaustive research; it is great writing, period.
|
The New York Times,
July 21, 2004
|
Overwhelming Giant of the Blues
White historians usually deserve the blame for over-mythologizing blues
singers. But James Segrest and Mark Hoffman, co-authors of the biography
Moanin’ at Midnight: The Life and Times of Howlin’ Wolf,
have little to fear.
Howlin’ Wolf’s feral act led everyone to
mythologize him: black and white, musicians and laymen, and especially Wolf
himself. Here the biographers repeat the myths, and lay them on a
chronological grid....
But by debriefing nearly 150 musicians who knew him
and drawing on secondary sources as well, and by the subtle imposition of a
few overriding themes, they have done important work in bringing Wolf down a
little closer to life size.
|
The San Francisco Chronicle
July 4, 2004
|
When the Wolf Began to Howl the Blues
In their new biography, Moanin’ at Midnight: The Life and Times of
Howlin’ Wolf, authors James Segrest and Mark Hoffman quote Bonnie Raitt
from a Guitar World magazine interview: “If I had to pick one person
who does everything I loved about the blues, it would be Howlin’ Wolf. It
would be the size of his voice, or just the size of him. When you’re a
little pre-teenage girl and you imagine what a naked man in full arousal is
like, it’s Howlin’ Wolf. When I was a kid, I saw a horse in a field with an
erection, and I went, ‘Holy s—!’ That’s
how I feel when I hear Howlin’ Wolf—and when I met him it was the same
thing. He was the scariest, most deliciously frightening bit of male
testosterone I’ve ever experienced in my life.” The book is full of illuminating—if not so
juicy—testimonials like that.
|
LA City Beat,
July 1, 2004
|
Down-to-Earth Giant
Blues scribes have always found Muddy Waters an easier subject than his
great Chicago rival Howlin’ Wolf. Maybe that was a product of Muddy’s
relaxed garrulity, or of Wolf’s taciturn inscrutability. So it’s only now,
nearly 30 years after Wolf’s death from cancer in 1976, that he has been
accorded his first full-length biography.
Fans will find “Moanin’ at Midnight: The Life and Times
of Howlin’ Wolf” (Pantheon), by James Segrest and Mark Hoffman, to be an
imperfect but nonetheless enormously illuminating exploration of this most
elusive of modern bluesmen.
Reading “Moanin’ at Midnight,” one discovers an artist
who was not what he seemed onstage. In front of a crowd, Wolf was fierce,
extroverted, bawdy, madly comic, sometimes terrifying. Segrest and Hoffman’s
Wolf is something else: tender, introverted, smart, generous, highly
sensitive, and, in the end, indomitable.
Though it suffers from some injudicious editing and
occasional repetitiveness, “Moanin’ at Midnight” is finally a heroic study
that succeeds in giving a larger-than-life figure a human size. With Don
McGlynn’s complementary 2003 film “The Howlin’ Wolf Story” (Bluebird DVD),
Segrest and Hoffman’s book shows us, as no one has before, what made the
Wolf howl.
|
USA Today,
June 21, 2004
|
“Midnight” Sings the Blues with Howlin’ Wolf’s Growl
If the roots of American blues indeed sprang from the anguish of black
poverty, then Chester Arthur Burnett—aka Howlin’ Wolf—had a wealth of
material from which to write songs. His no-holds-barred life has provided a
wealth of material for the biography Moanin’ at Midnight...
Moanin’ at Midnight is a valuable chronicle
of the blues, tracing the trajectory of Burnett’s career from playing juke
joints and whorehouses to performing at international festivals and
recording at Chicago’s influential Chess Record Studios.
-Stephen Lyons
©2004
USA Today
|
The Oregonian
June 18, 2004
|
Baker’s Hot List
James Segrest and Mark Hoffman teamed up to write the first biography of
Wolf, Moanin’ at Midnight: The Life and Times of Howlin’ Wolf. It’s a
fine year for books about the blues; Segrest and Hoffman’s follows Can’t
Be Satisfied, Robert Gordon’s biography of Muddy Waters.
|
The New York Times,
June 14, 2004:
|
Delta Force
“Moanin’ at Midnight” is this generation’s first and probably last full
portrait of one of the giants of American music—a figure who belongs in the
company of Duke Ellington, Hank Williams and Bob Dylan. This book should
scare off any rival biographers until everyone who ever knew Wolf is
dead....Essential reading...heartbreaking....It offers more than enough
information to satisfy anyone who loves the music, and it might tantalize
some of the uninitiated into seeking out Wolf’s scary, magisterial
recordings.
|
The Toronto Globe and
Mail,
June 12, 2004:
|
The Real Blues Brothers
Veteran blues musician Johnny Shines admitted that he used to think the
Wolf had sold his soul to the devil to perform the way he did. He did not
acknowledge the same for Robert Johnson (1911-1938), with whom Shines
traveled extensively, and whom writers for the last 40 years have thought
struck such a deal...
Almost to the end, [Wolf] performed whenever he could.
He didn’t live long enough to experience the recognition from mainstream
audiences that Muddy Waters enjoyed. But Howlin’ Wolf made records that
endure. Segrest and Hoffman show how to appreciate his best songs and his
well-rounded life.
|
The Tucson Citizen,
June 10, 2004:
|
The Definitive Biography of Howlin’ Wolf
“Moanin’ At Midnight” is the definitive biography of Howlin’ Wolf and it
is long overdue. After 10 years of extensive research and more than 250
interviews with such American blues icons as B.B. King, Ike Turner and Sam
Lay, the authors have produced a stunning portrait of one of the most
revered and elusive blues performers of all time. His story is written with
such style and attention to both color and detail, one can almost smell the
cigarette smoke, taste the stale beer and feel the pain of the Mississippi
blues.
|
The Chicago Reader,
June 4, 2004:
|
Four Hundred Pages of Heavenly Joy
“Moanin’ at Midnight” turns up a wealth of new facts, unraveling much of
the mystery that surrounds Howlin’ Wolf. Fittingly, it comes on the heels of
“Can’t Be Satisfied” (Little, Brown), Robert Gordon’s definitive bio of
Wolf’s chief Chicago blues rival, Muddy Waters...
Though “Moanin’ at Midnight” acknowledges Wolf’s larger-than-life
image, the book also takes pains to present him as a three-dimensional
character. More than just a bug-eyed house-rocking behemoth—he was six foot
three and nearly 300 pounds in his prime—Wolf was a responsible businessman
and bandleader, even withholding social security and unemployment from his
musicians’ pay.
|
The Chicago Sun-Times,
June 4, 2004:
|
Built for Greatness: Wolf’s Timeless Tale
For blues fans, 2004 could very well be the Year of the Wolf.
At the beginning of the year came the
outstanding video biography “The Howlin’ Wolf Story,” featuring interviews
with family and band members and rare performance footage.
Now “Moanin’ at Midnight: The Life and Times
of Howlin’ Wolf” by James Segrest and Mark Hoffman, joins “Spinning Blues
Into Gold,” Nadine Cahodas’ meticulously researched story of Chess Records,
and “Can’t Be Satisfied,” Robert Gordon’s outstanding biography of Muddy
Waters, in a trilogy of Chicago blues histories...
Every blues fan—and every Chicagoan—should
appreciate “Moanin’ at Midnight.”
|
Big Road Blues
June 2, 2004
|
It’s Been a Long Time Coming and It’s Finally Here!
When one considers the amount of time, dedication, and
honest-to-goodness leg work that goes into something this large, the outcome
is far more than satisfying and interesting. Segrest and Hoffman went about
writing this book with a deep sense of passion for both the artist and his
music. That passion breathes from the pages and pulls the reader in as you
fall inside Wolf’s world and find out what he overcame to become the
respected figure so many loved and admired....Highly recommended and well
worth waiting for. Moanin’ At Midnight: The Life And Times Of Howlin’
Wolf is a keeper on all counts.
|
The Seattle Times,
June 1, 2004:
|
Biography Reveals Howlin’ Wolf’s Blues
Segrest and Hoffman have surely written what will be the definitive
story of Wolf’s life. Based on more than 250 interviews and 10 years of
research, the authors have detailed every nuance of Wolf’s life and career,
and touch on virtually every musician who ever shared a stage with Chester
Burnett, better known as Howlin’ Wolf. The level of their research, which
tells the complete story of Wolf’s childhood, displays the kind of
scholarship usually reserved for academics...This book is essential for any
fan of the Wolf, a man that even Muddy Waters was called to celebrate.
|
Rhythm & News
from Delmark Records,
June, 2004
|
ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL for Any Blues Fan!
A lot of blues fans have eagerly been awaiting the publication of this
book and thankfully the wait was not in vain. Thoroughly researched, “Moanin’
at Midnight” traces Wolf’s life from his tragic childhood in
Mississippi right up until his death on January 10th, 1976 in Hines, IL.
Conversations with Wolf’s widow (the late Lillie Burnett), the few
surviving musicians who worked with him as well as other members of the
international blues community and music business all help to flesh out a
truly impressive biography of the man whom I personally feel was the
greatest blues singer of all time.
|
The San Diego
Union-Tribune,
May 30, 2004:
|
Captures the Pain, and Heart, of Blues Giant
“Moanin’ at Midnight”—incredibly, the first full-length bio
published on this long-acknowledged legendary master of the blues – brings
to light the lifelong, Dickensian horrors that transformed Chester “Howlin’
Wolf” Burnett’s singing into a primal, animalistic wail to forever linger in
the soul of all who experience it...
Accounts of murdered fans falling dead at the feet of
musicians onstage, of the alcoholic guitar wizard Johnson slashing at the
Wolf with his switchblade from slights both real and imagined, of buttocks
filled with buckshot fired by spurned lovers, permeate this tale like Wolf’s
lupine moans imbued his music...
Reading this page-turning, morbidly fascinating biography makes one feel
that pain even more comprehensively, while illuminating what made Howlin’
Wolf the towering giant, in every sense of the word, he’ll remain. “Moanin’
at Midnight” earns my highest recommendation not only for blues fans, but
for anyone who can appreciate a harrowing and unforgettable yarn.
|
The Boston Globe,
May 23, 2004:
|
The big bad Wolf, from all sides
The authors of this engaging book are devoted to Wolf’s memory and
music, which they appreciate, understand, and assess—almost record by
record. The discography and chronology of recording sessions, located at the
end, will be invaluable to enthusiasts of blues, r & b, and jazz. Segrest
and Hoffman have conducted countless interviews with musicians who played
alongside Wolf and people who saw him perform. “Moanin’ at Midnight”
demonstrates just how much can be recovered by dedicated researchers working
on 20th-century subjects for which the written evidence is sparse and
uneven. The authors uncover a rich vein of vernacular language and
intriguing colloquialisms in the vivid memories and observations of those
who knew the entertainer.
|
Library Journal,
May 15, 2004:
|
Highly recommended for all public and university libraries
Chester Arthur Burnett (1910-1976)—better known as Howlin’ Wolf—started
singing and playing guitar and harmonica throughout the Mississippi Delta
after a chance meeting with blues legend Charley Patton. Though he started
as an imitator of that master in the 1930s, the Wolf went on to usher in the
electric blues scene in 1950s Chicago with a gravelly voice and a
down-and-dirty stage presence all his own. In this first full-length
biography, historian Segrest and musician-writer Hoffman put the Wolf in his
rightful place alongside his more celebrated contemporaries (e.g., Muddy
Waters), detailing their subject’s life, performance style, recordings, and
pervasive influence on American and British blues and rock musicians.
Especially interesting—and bound to be controversial—is the well-supported
discussion of the Wolf’s relationship to fellow bluesman Willie Dixon, who
was given sole credit for writing songs either written or co-written by the
Wolf himself. This readable, high-quality work is made all the more valuable
by the continuing popularity of blues music and the Wolf’s lasting
influence.
-James E. Perone, Mount Union College, Alliance, OH
©2004 Library Journal and Reed
Business Information
|
Booklist,
May 1, 2004:
|
Down-home, gritty, and comprehensive
Billed as the first full-length biography of Howlin’ Wolf, the strapping
(six-foot-three and 300 pounds) bluesman with the lyrical growl, this
engrossing study is a must-have for blues-concerned collections and, indeed,
a worthy acquisition for any pop music collection. The Wolf (Chester Burnett
offstage) stands with Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker among the giants in
the blues pantheon. A student of Charlie Patton and the first Sonny Boy
Williamson, he rose from the poor sharecropper’s life that was pretty much
obligatory for blacks in Mississippi’s Delta region to stardom in first
Memphis and then Chicago. He helped define the blues sound that many of the
English-invasion rock bands of the 1960s based their styles on. A worthy
shelf mate for Robert Gordon’s Muddy Waters biography, Can’t Be Satisfied
(2002), Segrest and Hoffman’s book is a distinctive survey of the Wolf’s
life and career and a valuable blues history resource in general by virtue
of its limning of many of the Wolf’s fellow bluesmen—Little Walter, Willie
Dixon, and others.
-Mike Tribby
©2004 Booklist
|
*Starred*
review from
Publisher’s Weekly,
April 12, 2004:
|
Fluid, fascinating and thoroughly researched
Music writers Segrest and Hoffman do a superb job of capturing the many
facets of Wolf’s long career, making it a worthy companion to Robert
Gordon’s recent book on the other Chicago blues giant, Can’t Be
Satisfied: The Life and Times of Muddy Waters. But while Waters was
controlled and sexy, Segrest and Hoffman show, in contrast, how Wolf was
ferocious, angry and unpredictable, a large man with a powerful, raspy voice
and a keen intelligence. Born Chester Burnett in Mississippi in 1910, Wolf,
as the authors show, endured “crushing poverty” and almost constant physical
abuse, the source of much of the anger in his music. The authors nicely
detail the important musicians who influenced Wolf, from Charlie Patton, the
acknowledged master of country blues who taught Wolf to play the guitar, to
Reggie Boyd, the brilliant but obscure guitar teacher who encouraged Wolf’s
desire to expand his already enormous musical vision. Best of all, the
authors wonderfully describe Wolf’s inimitable style on the many recordings
he made in Chicago for Chess Records, such as “Smokestack Lightnin,” Wolf’s
masterpiece: “Over a hypnotic guitar figure and a driving rhythm that subtly
accelerates like a locomotive, Wolf sang a field holler vocal, interspersed
with falsetto howls like a dread lupine beast just down the road at
midnight.”
|
Praise
from
the bluesmen
who knew Wolf:
|
He was one of a kind. Nobody I heard before him or after him has had
that fantastic delivery–that certain something in his voice that seemed like
a sword that’d pierce your soul when he’d sing. Wolf was already a great
singer and musician when I first met him. To my mind, he’s one of the
greatest ever. We’ll never see another like him.
–From the Introduction by B. B. King
Talk about best-kept secrets! There are no rumors in this book–not a
one. It says everything there is to say about the Wolf. I’ve been looking
for this one for a long, long time.
–Taj Mahal
Things folks have done in the dark are going to come out in the light.
Nobody else has ever dug up what these guys have found–and it’s right.
–Hubert Sumlin |
