Book Review
INCURABLE BLUES The Troubles And Triumphs of HUBERT SUMLIN
By Will Romano,-- Backbeat Books -- Paper, $17.95
reviewed by Tony Glover
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"Keeping the Blues Alive Award"
Achievement for Blues on the Internet
Presented by The Blues Foundation
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Guitarist Hubert Sumlin is known as the guy who put a nasty driving edge on the best of Howling Wolf's recordings. His anarchistic lines were propulsive, snaky and absolutely apt, blending the down-home delta hypno rhythms with the distortion and funky skronk of Chicago bar-rooms. Sumlin was a boy in Mississippi when he first heard Wolf-as he tells it, falling through a juke joint window onto the bandstand in his hunger to hear the music. Growing up in Mississippi and Arkansas, Hubert was musically encouraged by his mom, who bought him a guitar and hoped he'd only play it in church-he got a whipping when he played blues. Later he hooked up with a neighbor, harpist James Cotton, and the two eventually landed a 15 minute show on West Memphis station KWEM, following Wolf's own program. Sumlin sat in with Wolf a time or two when guitarist Willie Johnson got too drunk, and when Wolf left his band behind and moved to Chicago, he kept Hubert in mind. Eventually Hubert got the call and moved north to join Wolf, playing mostly rhythm guitar at first. His first recordings with Wolf were in 1954-in all he'd spend some 23 years in and out of his bands and sessions.
Romano jumps around in time a bit-his disclaimer: "I investigate the Hubert Sumlin experience intent on highlighting Hubert's nature, rather than robotically documenting his life by rattling off a list of arbitrary dates and names in chronological sequence." Yeah, why let data and facts get in the way of sterling prose like this, describing a present-day gig: ".the harp moans and unleashes a sad beast, slithering and wallowing in a kind of sonic-muck, as Hubert's six string antics float high above the action, waving goodbye to the earthbound players onstage, who can only look up, slack-jawed, wishing they had wings." Thankfully, there's not a lot of this, and the general outlines of Hubert's life and times are well covered by books end, and Hubert's nature as a genial, caring person is well exposed.
Roughly half the 220 pages cover Sumlins early years and time with Wolf, the latter half goes into his solo career with all it's ups and downs. A discography lists all the Wolf titles which Sumlin says he recorded with him, including classics like "Smokestack Lightning", "Killing Floor" and "Wang Dang Doodle". There's a bit of analysis of his finger-picking guitar style-with the ultimate conclusion being that Sumlin's sound is in the man, not his equipment. Contemporaries are interviewed, (including local bandleader Curt Obeda, whose Butanes back Sumlin's Mpls appearances) and all wax enthusiastically about what a great player and man he is, still, the point does get a bit repetitious. The closing chapters show a man surmounting battles with alcoholism, cancer (he had a lung removed which leaves him short of breath), and heart disease, as well as the death of his long-time wife and helpmate. The final image of him struggling to board a plane to fly to the next gig alone is a haunting one-and paints a poignant picture of a man who is living for the music alone.
The book does give an evocative picture of the man, even if the reader might wish for a little more depth of detail and meat in the material.
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