{"id":16692,"date":"2019-06-23T05:30:38","date_gmt":"2019-06-23T09:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=16692"},"modified":"2019-05-06T10:20:31","modified_gmt":"2019-05-06T14:20:31","slug":"album-review-howlin-wolf-moanin-in-the-moonlight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2019\/06\/23\/album-review-howlin-wolf-moanin-in-the-moonlight\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Howlin&#8217; Wolf &#8212; Moanin&#8217; in the Moonlight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-16693\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/howlin_wolf_moanin.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/howlin_wolf_moanin.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/howlin_wolf_moanin-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/howlin_wolf_moanin-300x300.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/>Though he had already been a performing musician for some two decades, Chester \u201cHowlin\u2019 Wolf\u201d Burnett began his recording career in 1951, cutting sides for Sam Phillips in Memphis. By the next year he was under contract to Chess Records. As 1959 began, he had released no less than 22 singles. With the album era just over the horizon, Leonard Chess had the good sense to get out front with the the long-playing record format, and compiled <i>Moanin\u2019 in the Moonlight<\/i> from the singles cut for his label.<\/p>\n<p>Howlin\u2019 Wolf\u2019s first album is impressive in its variety. Owing at least in part to the varied circumstances of recording, the arrangements and performances showcase the breadth of the man\u2019s stylistic palette. \u201cNo Place to Go (You Gonna Wreck My Life)\u201d is positively hypnotic in its delivery, while the stinging electric approach of the hit single \u201cHow Many More Years\u201d features the band stomping along with equal parts determined purpose and reckless abandon. \u201cI Asked for Water (She Gave Me Gasoline)\u201d is loose-limbed; All Night boogie\u201d veers close to rock \u2018n\u2019 roll. The seminal \u201cSmokestack Lightning\u201d is the standout track, but none of the 12 cuts is anything short of immortal.<\/p>\n<p>First-pressings of Howlin\u2019 Wolf\u2019s LP debut go for upward of $400 if one can even locate a copy. Happily, the brand-new reissue of <i>Moanin\u2019 in the Monlight<\/i> is a near-total recreation of the original Chess LP and sleeve, right down to the record label and the cover art and text. Save for an unobtrusive UPC code on the back, it\u2019s identical. And the inner sleeve features a nice full-color reproduction of the monaural master tape sleeve, with handwritten track notes that reveal that the 1952 a-side \u201cThe Wolf is At Your Door\u201d was originally slated for inclusion on the album.<\/p>\n<p>A similar 2011 repressing \u2014 also on 180-gram virgin vinyl \u2014 is difficult to locate; the last time <i>Moanin\u2019<\/i> was available on vinyl in the U.S. was 1986; although collectible, that release didn\u2019t attempt to recreate the look and feel of the original classic. Geffen\/UMe\u2019s new pressing is the one to have.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Though he had already been a performing musician for some two decades, Chester \u201cHowlin\u2019 Wolf\u201d Burnett began his recording career in 1951, cutting sides for Sam Phillips in Memphis. By [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16693,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,64,65,73],"tags":[3841],"class_list":["post-16692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blues","category-reissue","category-review","category-vinyl","tag-howlin-wolf","cat-9-id","cat-64-id","cat-65-id","cat-73-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16692"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16694,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16692\/revisions\/16694"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}