Wolfman: Hey You!
Available on iTunes
WOLFMAN The name alone conjures up intrigue and mystery.
According to legend he was born and raised by Wolves in the Great Plains of the U.S.A. during the great depression of the 1930's. American Indians revered the Wolf and a small hairy creature was found scavenging through waste bins behind a general store on the Sioux reservation.
The tribe shaman taught him well and told him fantastic tales from native Indian folklore. He grew to value his surrogate family, living on his wits and cunning became second nature to him and his life had distant echoes of his time with Wolves.
In time, the call of the wild beckoned and he left the stability of the reservation. He scratched a living by busking and playing a slide guitar he made from an old petrol can.
However, his physical appearance and wild behaviour seemed to have had an adverse effect on the local population and for many years he lived a feral life, shunned by society.
Wolfman drifted South, he had a deep affinity with the blues and the Mississippi Delta area seemed to suit him. Although his incredibly hairy appearance and distinctive smell made him few friends, there was grudging respect for this wild man from nowhere. He sat in on gigs with local musicians, his gruff bass vocals gaining him many fans in the area.
British Blues/Rock band Stoned Deaf, Touring in 2012, heard Wolfman playing in a 'Juke Joint' near Memphis and were determined to get this ageing Blues legend recorded for posterity. Offered a change of clothes and a bottle of fire water, Wolfman agreed to co-write one song with the band. 'Hey You!' is a protest Blues/Rap and the lyrics reflect his abhorrence for technology, the modern world being an anathema to him. The song features his haunting, barking, howling and unique guitar licks.
Never easy to get along with, Wolfman was a solitary and difficult creature often 'lashing out' in confined spaces. With his alcohol dependency, wild mood swings and the fact that he wasn't housetrained, there were many sticky situations in his company. He disappeared shortly after finishing the recording, breaking up the studio in a wild drunken rage and storming out into the woods, howling.
Nobody knows if Wolfman is still alive. The story goes that he went down to the crossroads, fell down on his knees and was hit by a truck.
'Hey You!' is a piece of blues music history and the only known recording from the enigmatic Wolfman.
