Little Howling Wolf

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• James Pobiega

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Shattered-blues meditations; stoned, staggering polkas; ancient tongues spewing forth haunted voodoo-gibberish; back-porch gospel delirium; a room full of Chess session musicians tinkering with their instruments, too wasted to pull it together for just one more take before the crack of dawn -- these are just a few of the fleeting impressions the unique American music of one Little Howling Wolf evokes. As legend has it, Wolf (aka James Pobiega of Chicago) is a Polish-American genius-freak street busker who self-released approximately 32 45s and two LPs during the late '70s and early '80s. When these singles are consumed in a compilation-size dose -- as they can be with this release -- LHW's aesthetic becomes a panorama of 20th-century American folk and pop forms, methodically shredded and Scotch-taped back together into a mangled folk-blues groove that's incessantly threatening collapse into some incoherent muttering-madness -- but never does. Even when saxes, mouth harps, acoustic guitars, drums, various percussive effects, and LHW's guttural vox are all seemingly jamming on vastly different tunes from widely different eras, the ship holds together. That's because this Little Howling Wolf character possesses true outsider vision. Somebody declare this guy a national treasure.