Little Howlin' Wolf

Saturday July 17th, 2010, the second day of Artscape.

Artscape is an annual arts and music festival that takes place here in Baltimore during the seemingly hottest, humid-est weekend of the year.  It can be a great place to photograph some of Baltimore's best artist's at their worst, and vice versa.  This year, I thought it would be fun to bring along my Hasselblad and a polaroid back loaded with expired instant film.  Which was great, except for one thing:  I only took one shot.

Little Howlin' Wolf, Baltimore MD

This guy was playing on the corner of Preston and Charles Street, what could be considered as the "outskirts" of the Artscape festival.  Typically when shooting around a festival with a camera like this, people don't mind having their picture taken.  Not this guy.  After clicking the shutter, he immediately stopped playing and

"Why don't you put some money in the case, man?  I'm trying to make a living out here"

"Oh, of course, here you go" (I put a dollar in).

"You don't know who I am.  I don't know who you are......"

"I'm Cory" I interrupt, shoving my hand out for a handshake before he can start on a rant. "Nice to meet you."

"They call me Little Howlin' Wolf.  I got a lot of names.  Some people call me Deacon Blue.  You know, like the Steely Dan song?"

"Oh, hell yeah."

"What are you taking pictures for, anyway?"

"Well, I'm a photographer.  I do mostly editorial work...."

"Oh yeah?" Interrupting me this time, saving me from giving him the usual spiel.  "What publications?  I got a lot to say, I've been around the world, man.  I've been in all kinds of magazines, newspapers...."

He goes on his own spiel, seemingly eager for the press but also appreciative of the attention.  He tells me about playing around the world, places he's been and about his time in Baltimore, and although I'm listening patiently I can't help but feel like I've fallen through a trap door to this guy's damaged monologue.  This shaggy, shirtless, sweaty saxophone player, down on his luck with delusions of former and mistaken grandeur.  I'm not too quick to judge, but I'm not foolish enough to be unwary of strange and potentially dangerous people I run into on the street, either.

Before leaving him to join up with the folks I'd left behind to take his photo, he gave me his address (so I could send him a print) and made sure that I would use the name "Little Howlin' Wolf".  Since I'd taken a polaroid (which I had no plans to reproduce nor explain), I asked him if I could take one more shot of him playing, only this time with my digital camera:

In front of the old Wachovia building, with an O'Malley sticker and reflections of row houses in the background.

Two days later, I couldn't help but wonder if there was some element of truth in some of what he had to say, so I googled "Little Howlin' Wolf".... 

His name is James Pobiega, he's (mostly) out of Chicago and as it turns out he's about as famous as an underground street musician can get, maybe more so.  He's been around the world, has some albums out, and has been written about and reviewed numerous times.  The guy has his own IMDB page, as well as his own MySpace page.  When he's not playing as a street musician, his music is mostly real blues-y and lo-fi, and some of it can be pretty rough around the edges.  If you're interested I recommend going to his MySpace and checking out "Rose of Silence" and "Birds of Capistrano" first, and maybe follow it up with "Tears Were Fallin' Down".  I'm really into it, but even if i wasn't one thing is for sure: this guy is a total badass who knows how to play.

At our initial meeting outside Artscape, he told me he'd be playing at the Downtown Farmer's Market at Saratoga Street here in Baltimore.  So, two weeks later and with a few 8x10's of the above image, I met him there.  He was once again really more on the outskirts, which not only seemed appropriate but made it easier to hear him play.  I told him I'd heard his music online and that I really liked it, was really impressed.  He laughed and said "Yeah man, it's a lot different than what I play out here, huh?  That's what I keep telling these guys [motioning to other street musicians].  You gotta change it up out here, man".  I was disappointed to hear he's going back to Chicago either Tuesday or Wednesday, but I have a feeling he'll be back.  I've lived here long enough to know that "Baltimore" can be used as an adjective, and this guy is way too Baltimore to not come back.

As he packed up his sax and the prints I gave him, he said he was thinking about going down to play around Otakon, the Japanese anime convention held at the Baltimore Convention Center every year which was in full swing on it's last day.  He said he was going to go down and play some real "Wabi-sabi, man, Wabi-sabi" for them, which meant nothing to me until I saw it on Wikipedia later.  (Really, you should click the link). 

Before leaving, I had him sign one of the 8x10's for me.  It reads:  "To Cory, From Wolf".