Howlin' Wolf: The London Sessions

By GRAHAM REID

(Herald rating: * * * *)

One of the most beloved blues albums of the early 70s was this super-session recorded when Howlin' Wolf went to London to work with the Stones' rhythm section of Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman, guitarist Eric Clapton, and others including Stones' pianoman Ian Stewart. And an uncredited Ringo Starr on I Ain't Superstitious.

The subsequent album was earthy but disciplined, a meeting of the old school master from Chicago's Chess studios with young English blues musicians who had grown up on his sound and knew it intimately.

It commanded considerable turntable time then, was much sought after by collectors down the years, and now - in the same Deluxe Edition series which has given Bob Marley albums a makeover - gets remastered and reissued with an extra disc of alternative takes, different mixes and unreleased material.

Not the easiest of sessions - the grumpy and ill Wolf intimidated Clapton who wondered why he was there when Wolf had his own guitarist, the boy wonder Hubert Sumlin - but Watts and Wyman settled things down on the second day and the result was a classic meeting of blues generations. And it still cooks.

Listen to them work up Little Red Rooster through a false start, get a rockin' momentum on Willie Dixon's propulsive Do the Do and a menacing Wang Dang Doodle for proof. And know Jack and Meg White Stripe probably have the original album on vinyl. Yep, that crucial.

Label: MCA Deluxe Edition