HUBERT SUMLIN
For more than 20 years Hubert Sumlin’s guitar was right behind Howlin’ Wolf on stage and on record. ‘Killin’ Floor’, ‘Smokestack Lightnin’, ‘Spoonful’ and ‘Ain’t Superstitious’ all had Hubert’s razor-sharp guitar lines behind Wolf’s rumbling vocals. Hubert played the diddley-bow back in Greenwood MS when he was a kid and he teamed up with local boy James Cotton to play the Blues. Wolf called him to Chicago in 1954 and they developed an instant musical rapport as Hubert developed his lead-guitar chops. Things went wrong off-stage between the two men after a couple of years and Hubert switched to Muddy Waters‘ band for a while, but when he came back to Wolf, it was to be for life.
I KNOW YOU
[/stextbox]Hubert had another fine solo outing with ‘About Them Shoes’ in 2005, with help from Keef Richards, Eric Clapton, Levon Helm, David Johansen and his long-time friend James Cotton. In 2011, Hubert passed away from heart failure in a New Jersey hospital at 80 years of age.
‘Little Hubert’ playing with Sunnyland Slim back in the day;
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