Moanin’ At Midnight: The Story Of Howlin’ Wolf — One Of The Greatest Blues Musicians To Have Ever Lived

“I was broke when I was born, that’s the reason I’m howlin!” — Howlin’ Wolf (Chester Burnett)

Few stories of musicians are as troubled and tragic as the story of the early life of Chester Burnett better known by his stage name ‘Howlin’ Wolf’.

Wolf would go on to become a blues great in his later years but his beginnings were forged firmly in tragedy and abuse.

Born to Leon “Dock” Burnett and Gertrude Jones on June 10, 1910, in White Station, Mississippi, a tiny railroad stop between Aberdeen and West Point in the Mississippi hill country, many miles away from the Delta, Burnett gravitated to music in his early years, which was his only solace in a life of physical abuse, tragedy and strife.

Fascinated by the emerging music at the time as a boy, he would often beat on pans with a stick and imitate the whistle of the railroad trains that ran nearby. He also sang in the choir at the White Station Baptist church, where Will Young, his stern, unforgiving great-uncle preached.

When his parents separated, his father moved to the Delta, and his mother left Chester with his uncle Will, who mistreated and physically…