West Point, Miss., - (August 28, 2007) – West Point will dedicate a Mississippi Blues Trail Marker at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, August 30 to honor Chester Burnett, known to many as 'Howlin’ Wolf.'

'Blues legend Howlin’ Wolf is a Mississippi success story,' Governor Haley Barbour said. 'His trademark falsetto ‘howl’ he learned as a young man in the Delta has influenced hundreds of artists, and it is an honor for Mississippians to claim him and celebrate his life on our Blues Trail.'

Photo: Richard Ramsey (Program Director-Howlin' Wolf Blues Society), Jonn Richardson (Guitarist for Diunna Greenleaf and IBC Albert King Best Guitar Award winner) behind Hubert Sumlin (Howlin' Wolf Band and Top 100 Rolling Stone Mag Guitarst), Diunna Greenleaf (IBC Best Blues Band Award for Diunna Greenleaf and Blue Mercy Band) and Kieth Zurcher (MTV Lawyer). Photo credited to Diunna Greenleaf.

Born in White Station near West Point, Mississippi, he was named after Chester A. Arthur, after the 21st President of the United States, and was nicknamed Big Foot and Bull Cow in his early years because of his massive size, but was given the name Howlin' Wolf later from his grandfather. As a youth he listened to Charley Patton, who taught him the rudiments of guitar, as well as to the Mississippi Sheiks, Tommy Johnson, and Jimmie Rodgers, whose famous 'blue yodel,' Burnett integrated into his singing style. Wolf’s harmonica playing was modelled after Sonny Boy Williamson II, who had lived with his sister for a time and taught him how to play.

He farmed during the 1930s, served in the United States Army as a radioman in Seattle during World War II, and by 1948 had formed a band which included guitarists Willie Johnson and M. T. Murphy, harmonica player Junior Parker, a pianist named Destruction, and drummer Willie Steele. He began broadcasting on KWEM in West Memphis, Arkansas, alternating between performing and pitching farm equipment, and auditioned for Sam Phillips's Memphis Recording Service in 1951.

Howlin' Wolf quickly became a local celebrity, and soon began working with a band that included both Willie Johnson and guitarist Pat Hare. His first recordings came in 1951, when he was simultaneously signed with the Bihari brothers at Modern Records and to Leonard Chess' Chess Records. Chess issued Howlin' Wolf's How Many More Years in August 1951; Wolf also recorded sides for Modern, with Ike Turner, in late 1951 and early 1952.

Chess eventually won the war over the singer, and Wolf settled in Chicago, Illinois. He began playing with guitarist Hubert Sumlin, whose terse, curlicued solos perfectly complemented Burnett's huge voice and surprisingly subtle phrasing. In the mid-'50s Wolf released 'Evil' and 'Smokestack Lightnin',' both major R&B hits.

Unlike many other blues musicians, after he left his impoverished childhood to begin a musical career, Howlin' Wolf was always financially successful. He described himself as 'the onliest one to drive himself up from the Delta' to Chicago, which he did, in his own car on the Blues Highway and with four thousand dollars in his pocket, a rare distinction for a black blues man of the time. In his early career, this was the result of his musical popularity and his ability to avoid the pitfalls of alcohol, gambling, and the various dangers inherent in what are vaguely described as 'loose women,' to which so many of his peers fell prey. Wolf met his wife, Lillie, while playing in a Chicago club, and the couple remained deeply in love until his death. They had two daughters, Bettye and Barbara.

At 6 foot, 6 inches and close to 300 pounds, he was an imposing presence with one of the loudest and most memorable voices of all the 'classic' 1950’s blues singers. Howlin' Wolf's voice has been compared to 'the sound of heavy machinery operating on a gravel road.' Although the two were reportedly not that different in actual personality, this rough edged, slightly fearsome musical style is often contrasted with the more genteel but still powerful presentation of his contemporary, Muddy Waters, to describe the two pillars of the Chicago Blues representing the two sides of the music.

Howlin' Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller), Little Walter Jacobs and Muddy Waters are usually regarded as the greatest blues artists who recorded for Chess in Chicago. In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him #51 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

Chester Burnett 'Howlin Wolf' died on January 10 1976 and is buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery, Hillside, Cook County, Illinois. He will now join the list of others who have markers along roads, grave sites, juke joints, and historic sites creating the Mississippi Blues Trail.

The marker will be placed in downtown West Point on East Broad Street.

PHOTO: Richard Ramsey (Program Director-Howlin' Wolf Blues Society), Hubert Sumlin (Howlin' Wolf Band and Top 100 Rolling Stone Mag Guitarst), Kieth Zurcher (MTV Lawyer), Diunna Greenleaf (IBC Best Blues Band Award for Diunna Greenleaf and Blue Mercy Band) and Jonn Richardson (Guitarist for Diunna Greenleaf and IBC Albert King Best Guitar Award winner). Photo credited to Diunna Greenleaf.

'We are honored to unveil this marker in West Point where Howlin Wolf always referred to as home. We are fortunate to have his musical talent and history be apart of our culture to share with the world,' stated Alex Thomas, Mississippi Heritage Trails Director.

The Mississippi Blues Trail Markers are funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities by support from West Point/Clay County Community Growth Alliance, Howlin’ Wolf Blues Society, Mississippi Department of Transportation, Delta State University and the Mississippi Development Authority.

-----Richard Ramsey