Personnel: Howlin' Wolf (vocals, guitar, harmonica); Hubert Sumlin, Willie Johnson, Otis "Smokey" Smothers, Jody Williams (guitar); J.T. Brown (tenor saxophone); Donald Hankins (baritone saxophone); Johnny Jones, Lafayette Leake, Hosea Lee Kennard (piano); Willie Dixon, Buddy Guy, Andrew Palmer (bass); Sammy Lay, Earl Phillips, Junior Blackman (drums). Recorded in Chicago, Illinois between 1956 & 1965. Originally released on Chess (1502). Includes liner notes by Chris Morris. Digitally remastered by Doug Schwartz (MCA's Whitney Studios, Glendale, California). The Mobile Fidelity Ultradisc version of REAL FOLK BLUES contains 2 tracks not on the original release ("Smokestack Lightnin'" and "Hidden Charms"). Personnel includes: Howlin' Wolf, Hubert Sumlin, Willie Dixon, Sam Lay, Johnny Jones, Lafayette Leake, Buddy Guy. Recorded between 1956 and 1963. In the mid-'60s, Chess Records released a great series of compilations of '40s and '50s singles by some of its best blues artists, all of them called The Real Folk Blues. The Howlin' Wolf entry is possibly the best of the batch, and one of the best introductions to this mercurial electric bluesman. Opening with the savage "Killing Floor," the album doesn't let up in intensity, and it happily focuses on Wolf's less-anthologized sides, which gives the album a freshness a lot of blues compilations lack. From the sly "Built for Comfort" and "Three Hundred Pounds of Fun" to the apocalyptic "Natchez Burning," every track is pure Chicago blues at its finest. The album's only flaws are its skimpy 32-minute running length and the inexplicable omission of perhaps Wolf's greatest single, the amazing "How Many More Years." ~ Rovi Staff

• Genre: Blues
• Format: Vinyl
• Released: 02/09/2015