Gang related

Eddie Shaw keeps the Howlin' Wolf spirit alive

by Don Fluckinger

Although Eddie Shaw was born in the Mississippi Delta, the tune getting the most airplay off his new Delmark CD Can't Stop Now -- "Chicago Man" -- shows where his allegiance now lies. An undeveloped jam on his 1992 In the Land of the Crossroads, it returns as a polished anthem in which Shaw promises to take you to all the Windy City's hot spots for food, entertainment, and culture.

"I've been writing a little bit on that `Chicago Man' for some time, but it takes time to get it all together," says Shaw, a tenor sax stalwart, who plays Theodore's, in Springfield, this Friday. "Sometimes my mind just don't kick in. I can write a tune sometimes in five or six hours, and then sometimes I can't get a good tune together in five or six weeks."

In the late '50s it was Chicago where Shaw walked out of Muddy Waters' band and down the street onto the stage of Chester "Howlin' Wolf" Burnett. The bluesmen had room for Shaw in their bands, no doubt thanks to his rich tone, perfect fills, and tasteful solos. Now 60 years old, Shaw still plays upwards of 225 shows yearly.

The Chicago blues heyday of the '60s and '70s proved to be an excellent time for Shaw, who played gigs with Hound Dog Taylor, Freddie King, Otis Rush, Earl Hooker, and Magic Sam. In 1972 he took over Howlin' Wolf's band, the Wolf Gang, and became his personal manager. Shaw also arranged the tunes on The Howlin' Wolf London Sessions (with Eric Clapton) and Muddy Waters' Unk and Funk album. That's a resume that any blues musician would covet -- and we're not even counting the greats Shaw played with before he hit Chicago, back in Greenville, Mississippi, such as Ike Turner, Little Milton Campbell, and Willie Love. But Shaw remembers that at the time many of the people we know as legends today were not regarded as part of the blues pantheon, but as entertainers.

"At that time, you were just on the stage with a regular guy," Shaw says of Howlin' Wolf. "He always had that stage presence, you know, but it didn't get blown out of proportion until later in life -- he got all this recognition when he was about ready to die."

Still, there's no question that Shaw cut his teeth while working with a great blues musician. It can be heard in his voice as he shouts the words of Howlin' Wolf's "Howlin' for My Darling" on Can't Stop Now, seen in his calm, instinctive stage presence, and felt in the way he speaks of his mentor, even after two decades of making his own mark.

"[Howlin' Wolf] didn't have too much education but he was very wise, street-wise, and I learned my band finesse mostly from him," he says. "I try to walk close to his footsteps. He was a great man, and I just want a little bit to rub off on me here and there. I don't want to do nothing that he'll raise up and look up from the grave and say, `Hey, Eddie, you ain't doing that right.' Every once in a while I say, `Hey, man, am I doing right? How am I doing?'"

Since Howlin' Wolf died in 1976, Eddie Shaw has kept the Wolf Gang name for his band, which currently features Shaw as lead vocalist and sax; Lafayette "Shorty" Gilbert, who's earned the most seniority in the band after 20 years; pianist and Chicago fixture Detroit Junior; drummer Tim Taylor, son of the legendary guitarist Eddie, who has eight years of his own in the Wolf Gang; and son Eddie "Vaan" Shaw on guitar. Shaw's family abounds with show-biz talent.

Another of his sons, Stan, has acting credits in films including Harlem Nights, Fried Green Tomatoes, Daylight with Sylvester Stallone, and Cutthroat Island.

Seems that all blues musicians in Chicago cross paths with Delmark Records at least one time in their careers. As Eddie Shaw could compose, arrange, and write music, he worked the Delmark studios managing weekly sessions for the label with fellow studio fixture Jimmy Dawkins in the '60s. In the '90s he's recorded for European and Japanese labels as well as for Rooster Blues, in Clarksdale, Mississippi which released In the Land of the Crossroads.

Coming back to Delmark in 1997, Eddie Shaw recorded his best album in years, ready to take on the mantle for his generation. Of course, he'd never put it that way, because, ever the professional, he's making his old boss proud.

"On Land of the Crossroads I did mostly Mississippi bayou type blues because I stayed down in that part of the country," Shaw says. "Well, times change too. You go in with more modern equipment, and you go with more up-to-date ideas. . . . Every time you do a new album, you're looking for better quality, you're looking for better compositions, you know, to upgrade everything. You want everything better than it was the year before, so hopefully that's the case now."

Eddie Shaw and the Wolf Gang perform at 10 p.m. on November 14 at Theodore's, in Springfield. Tickets are $8. Call (413) 736-6000.