The Howlin Wolf Story: The Secret History Of Rock And Roll (2003) ( HQ)

Howlin Wolf, aka Chester Burnett, came out of the deep south, out of the fields of Mississippi, out of a superreligious mother who stuck so firmly to her guns that Blues was the devil s music that she never spoke to her son for decades, out of racism and hardship, and made his own original, vibrant kind of music. He wasn t alone, as others like Muddy Waters came into prominence (and, according to a special feature on the DVD that should have been included with the rest of the doc, had a rivalry for some time), and shook up popular music first for black audiences and then slowly but firmly whites. It s a remarkable journey, told with not a whole lot of style as a kind of directtovideo approach, with a plethora of good facts and some humbling opinions (one of Wolf s closest musician friends and bandmates, Hubert Sumlin, provides the most entertaining anecdotes as a diehard bluesman through and through). Plus, of course, the music, with some rare performances and eve br, br,