On April 12, 1973, at the New Orleans Jazz Festival, (my first jazz fest), I heard and saw 300 pounds of heavenly joy. Howlin’ Wolf, though ailing, worked his magic which still lives for me 37 years later. His gripping voice, primal and nasty, rocked my house. Wolf’s passion transferred his presence into my world and still moves me today.

His mystery still lives for me when I hear such greats as “Back Door Man,” “Evil,” “Smoke Stack Lighting” and the relentless “Red Rooster.”

Remembering April 12th, 1973, I’m surrounded by how important of an evening this was for me. I can say it was truly life-changing. Wolf’s stage presence was accentuated by other performances, my first  for Como Drum and Fife Corp, The Mardi Gras Indians, Taj Mahal and Albert King, another immortal. It was a night of a lifetime.

The 15th Annual Howlin’ Wolf Memorial Blues Festival starts this Friday, Sept. 3rd. Click here for more details.

Click here to see all of “Lemuria Reads Mississippians.”

Editor Neil White will be signing at Lemuria on  Thursday, October 28th.

Reserve your copy online or call the bookstore 601/800.366.7619.

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Moanin’ at Midnight: The Life and Times of Howlin’ Wolf

by James Segrest and Mark Hoffman

Pantheon (2004)

Howlin’ Wolf (Chester Arthur Burnett)–all six feet three inches and 300 pounds of him–is a god of the blues. Moanin’ is the first full length biography capturing this giant of American music.

From a hard childhood around West Point, Mississippi, Wolf emerged to become immortal, even expressing desire to play the blues on the moon. This landmark biography captures the times and influences upon this icon. In the 30s, as a young man he was playing next to Sonny Boy II, from whom he learned to play the harp and Robert Johnson.

In the early 50s Wolf hit Chicago, recording for Chess, and the world opened up. Working with Willie Dixon, and backed by Hubert Sumlin, Wolf developed a style of overwhelming intensity. His presence was created with a feral state of antics, crawling around on all fours, howling out masculinity. Women found him irresistible. It was music that would pitch a wang dang doodle and tear the house down.

Moanin’ at Midnight captures it all, helping us to understand how Wolf, Muddy, Sonny Boy, Little Water and a parade of others–led by Willie Dixon– defined electric blues for the world.

Howlin’ Wolf’s final performance was in Chicago with B. B. King in November of 1975. This larger than life giant passed away in January of 1976.

West Point, Mississippi now honors the Wolf this time of year with the “Howlin’ Wolf Memorial Blues Festival.”

How do you make a fabulous book on Mississippi blues? Get the well-known Mississippian photographer Ken Murphy to join forces with blues aficionado Scott Barretta.

You may know the work of Ken Murphy through his previous books, My South Coast Home and Mississippi. You may not know that it was sort of an accident that he became a photographer. An injury to his right index finger in a war game operation in Germany led to a reassignment with a hobby shop at a U.S. military base which led to his interest in photography. In 1986 Ken received a BFA degree in Narrative, Documentary and Editorial Photography from the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York. To our good fortune, he landed back in Mississippi to capture the beauty and curiosity of our state.

Scott Barretta finds his professional home at University of Mississippi, but his love of the blues has taken him cross-country and over the ocean. Studying sociology and editing the oldest continuous blues publication–which happens to be in Sweden–gave Scott a sweeping view of the blues tradition and its fans. Though his work has taken him to various and sundry places, Scott is pleased to reside in the heart of the blues while researching and writing under The Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, the Mississippi Arts Commission, Mississippi Blues Commission and other organizations at the center of blues study and support. You can also listen to him on Highway 61 Radio.

While these two were doing great work on their own, John Evans somehow managed to get  them together: “Ken’s photos flip-sided by Scott’s commentary, two creators coming together on the shape of Mississippi blues today” (“Forward” Mississippi: State of Blues).

Nothing can replace holding the book in your hands, but we’re going to be giving you a preview of this gorgeous book. The unexpected treat at the end is a list of blues festivals, clubs that regularly feature blues, and a list of museums and resources devoted to the blues.

So be on the lookout over the coming weeks. We’ll be posting our thoughts on State of Blues on our blog. Got your own Mississippi blues memory about one of Ken’s photos? Share it with us in the comments section. Howlin’ Wolf is gonna start us off tomorrow!

The book will go on sale in early November. Ken Murphy and Scott Barretta will be at Lemuria Thursday, November 11th for a Signing at Sunset with live music at the DotCom building. If that’s too early for you, there’s more live music and fun at Jackson’s Underground 119 starting at 8 o’clock. (Click here for directions.)

Click here to see all of our blogs on Mississippi State of Blues.

Reserve your copy online or call the bookstore 601/800.366.7619.

jjj

In 1986 Ken received a BFA degree in Narrative, Documentary and
Editorial Photography from the Rochester Institute of Technology in
In 1986 Ken received a BFA degree in Narrative, Documentary and
Editorial Photography from the Rochester Institute of Technology in
Rochester, New York.
Rochester, New York.

I’m going to take a break from normal blogging today to tell you about a couple of new things about LemuriaBooks.com.

Our website has been around for a long time and for years we have been featuring our events and signed first editions. And for a long time we’ve had a shopping cart on our website.

This summer we’ve updated our cart so that you can now start an account on our website. We’ve always offered house accounts in the store, but now you can register all of your information (charge and shipping) on the website, create a password, and from that time on you can speed through every transaction on our website. And if you forget your password? Just shoot us an email or give us a call and we’ll get you a new password. (and of course you can still call the store or email us an order) If you’d like to go ahead and register please click here.

We’ve also worked up a mobile version of our website so that when you’re on your smart phone at home you can go to Lemuriabooks.com and the website will be automatically formatted for your phone.

An ultimate compliment for Lemuria was to be Eudora Welty’s hometown bookstore. Her graceful light shone on us as she shared her heart. Through her goodness and belief in our work, she gave herself in our support. Eudora’s sharing of her love for books made Lemuria better. Her wisdom guided our evolution, enabling us to be the bookstore we are today. Our Queen of Literature in Mississippi.

Click here to see all of “Lemuria Reads Mississippians.”

Editor Neil White will be signing at Lemuria on  Thursday, October 28th.

Reserve your copy online or call the bookstore 601/800.366.7619.

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