Historical Biography: Chester Burnett

Chester Arthur Burnett, better known as Howlin' Wolf, was born in White Station, a small stop along the railroad in the Mississippi hill country, on June 10, 1910. When his father, Leon "Dock" Burnett, and his mother, Gertrude Young, seperated, Dock went to live in the Delta area.

As a child, Burnett was always fond of music. He sang in choir of the White Station Baptist church, were his strict god-fearing uncle Will Young was the preacher. After Chester's father moved to the Delta, his mother left him with Will Young, and he was known to treat the boy harshly.

Chester's relationship was his mother was not good either, and it caused a distrust of women that can be heard in many of Howlin' Wolf's songs. Gertrude Young made a living by singing on the streets and selling hymns she had written on the corner. She scolded her son for his interest in music other than gospel and never forgave him for playing the "Devil's music."

At the age of thirteen, Chester ran away to the Delta to live with his father. He moved in with his father's new family near Ruleville, Mississippi, on the Young and Morrow Plantation. Chester became fascinated by the local blues musicians, including Charley Patton who lived nearby. He later took guitar lessons from Patton and went on to take harmonica lessons from blues legend Sonny Boy Williamson II. He learned to sing from listening to records of his favorite artsists, such as Jimmy "the Singing Brakeman" Rodgers, the Mississippi Sheiks and Tampa Red.

In 1941, Howlin' Wolf was drafted into the Army Signal Corps and spent at the Pacific Northwest at Fort Lewis, Washington and Camp Adair, Oregon. Wolf was not meant for the strict discipline and rule in the army though, and after an early discharge, he returned to his father's farm. On the weeks, and long weeks are hard farm labor, Chester would play the blues on the weekend at Lake Cormorant and other parts of Northern Mississippi.

In 1948, at the age of 38, Chester finally decided to follow his true passion and moved to West Memphis, Arkansas and started a blues band. His band included two harmonica players, James Cotton and Junior Parker, and three guitarists, Willie Johnson, Patt Hare and Matt "Guitar" Murphy. His band performed on the local radio, KWEM, and soon were locally famous.

In 1951, Sam Phillips, a Memphis record producer, invited Howlin' Wolf to record "Moanin' at Midnight" and "How Many More Years" in a studio. After recording, Phillips leased both songs to Chess Records and both songs hit the top ten of the Billboard R&B charts. Wolf produced more songs and Phillips leased those out also. Eventually, Wolf signed on to Chess Records and moved to Chicago to continue his career. Many of the songs that Wolf sang, such as "Smokestack Lightning" and "Back Door Man" have become blues standards.

In Chicago, Howlin' Wolf was rivaled in the blues scene by singer Muddy Waters. Although the two traded insults and at one time, Waters even stole a guitarist from Wolf, their competition was friendlier than most fans knew. The competition between them gave each of them the drive to work harder.

Howlin' Wolf kept singing and performing until his death. In 1964, he married his long time sweetheart Lillie Hanley. He began playing with newer artists of the time, such as Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix. In the late 1960's, Wolf's health started to fail and he suffered several heart attacks, but it was a car crash in Toronto in 1970 that destroyed his kidneys and fully disabled Howlin' Wolf. For the rest of his life he had a dialysis done every three days, but continued to perform.

Howlin' Wolf's last performance was at the Chicago Ampitheater in November of 1975. He shared the bill with other blues legends such as B.B. King, Luther Allison and O.V. Wright. His performance was a good as it had been when he was twenty and the crowd gave him a five-minute standing ovation. Howlin' Wolf died two months later when his heart failed during surgery and his body is buried in Hines, Illinois.