… and so, what happened was, I kept seeing this name in my head while on the road in Australia in 2010 (again)… ‘LittleWolf’, yeah, Johnny Shines’s nickname. He played rhythm guitar for Howlin’ Wolf back in the late 1930s. He made the sound bigger and the band better. I knew that’s what I wanted for my next project… a great ensemble. And I just liked the name ‘LittleWolf’.
Besides being big, wide-open, beautiful country, Australia and Texas have more in common than you might think. We got our keyboard player John Whyte from DownUnder. Steve Lott and John Whyte have been playing and recording together for years and, to our ears, his luscious playing is the best in the world.
Kristi Bess Clanton announces her arrival – and impressively – on this sampler. A singing star since childhood in Texas, she has blossomed into a great slide-steel guitarist and songwriter for LittleWolf. Her voice is simply spectacular. She can handle anything from a traditional blues shout to a heartbreaking ballad with the ease of a true artist. Tough as overdue rent or smooth as 20-year-old bourbon… she can kill you with one note.
Steve Lott is the other principal singer/writer/guitarist in LittleWolf. Having toured the world extensively and released two award-winning albums in Australia in 1999 and 2001, he came home to Texas to work with Kay Kay Greenwade (Kay Kay and The Rays) and Johnny Rawls in 2004. In 2009, after returning home from yet another two-year road trip to New Zealand and Australia, a chance meeting between Clanton and Lott sparked off what is now LittleWolf. A new band. A new beginning. So… that’s what happened!
Get your serve of howlin’ with LittleWolf on Sunday at the Ivory Tavern.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dHy0DDL85k
