The Road to a Modern IT Factory

Thanks to a roster including Cocteau Twins and Pixies, UK imprint 4AD has maintained its status as a force in independent music for more than 30 years. Author Martin Aston talks about his exhaustive new history of the label.

Hubert Sumlin arguably did his best work during the 23 years he was Howlin' Wolf's guitar player, and his ragged, angular guitar style was a big part of Wolf's rough-and-ready sound. The perfect sideman, Sumlin was by all accounts somewhat shy and reticent about taking center stage, and Healing Feeling, his second album for Black Top Records, much like his first, Hubert Sumlin's Blues Party, is really more of an all-star blues jam than it is a fully realized project. Recorded May 5 and 6, 1989, at Southlake Recording Studios in Louisiana, with two additional tracks coming from a live show at Tipitina's in New Orleans earlier in the day on May 5, the sessions were once again organized by guitarist Ronnie Earl, whose band the Broadcasters is used on most of the cuts. The vocal duties were shared by James "Thunderbird" Davis and Darrell Nulisch, with Sumlin singing on "Come Back Little Girl," "Honey Dumplins," and the set closer, "Blues for Henry," all of which gain poignancy because of Sumlin's somewhat fragile, whispered vocal approach. A clear highlight is Sumlin's solo electric guitar version of "Down the Dusty Road," which is focused, clear, and intimate.