Biography
Coy "Hot Shot" Love functioned as a versatile figure in blues circles, working as a sign-painter and urban presence while demonstrating exceptional skill on harmonica and covering his leather jacket, bicycle, and assorted belongings with handwritten expressions of his personal worldview. Residing along Gayoso Street in Memphis as a traveling musician who occasionally painted signs, he reached his only studio opportunity on January 8, 1954, when he arrived at Sam Phillips' Sun Studios to cut "Wolf Call Boogie" b/w "Harmonica Jam," accompanied by Mose Vinson on piano, Pat Hare on guitar, Kenneth Banks on bass, and Houston Stokes on drums. The A-side, for which an alternate take survives, consists mainly of spoken commentary over music set inside a tavern, delivering pointed remarks toward the bartender along with dry commentary on existence and romance. Its B-side counterpart presents a back-and-forth between Love and Pat Hare in which the harmonica player prevails both vocally and through Sonny Terry-style playing during an unbalanced contest. Love issued no additional Sun singles, reportedly because he was balancing involvements with as many as seven women simultaneously and therefore had little incentive to return to the studio, yet "Wolf Call Boogie" has become one of the most widely reissued Sun blues performances, surfacing on anthologies from Rhino, Rounder, Charly, and Bear Family while marking an evolutionary step from country blues toward rock & roll through its loose structure and bold lyrical content. He continued living for decades after this solitary recorded achievement until dying in a car accident on Interstate 55.