"It's been about three years since I took over from Jack Groetsch," Howie Kaplan, the ever-amiable proprietor of the Howlin' Wolf explains. "A little piece came out in Keith Spera's 'Lagniappe' column that the Howlin' Wolf was for sale. That was on a Friday. On Monday, I called Jack.

"I wasn't friends with Jack. I just knew him more by name than anything else. We sat down for a five-minute meeting on Monday at about 1 o'clock and we didn't finish until after 5. We talked about how much tim...