The Howlin' Wolf

The anniversary of John Lennon's death may not be the best date to open a music club, but the Howlin' Wolf has overcome that omen and flourished.

From its debut on Dec. 8, 1988, in a small, L-shaped room in Fat City to its current home in a 1,000-capacity Warehouse District space, the Wolf has evolved into one of the city's premier live music venues, presenting a mix of local and national rock, blues, jazz and roots music. Several hundred people turned out last Friday to hear The Smithereens, kicking off the club's month-long 10th anniversary celebration. Acts that are Howlin' Wolf favorites will be featured all month; surf guitar hero Dick Dale performs Saturday.

Brothers Jack and Jeff Groetsch were waiting tables in 1988 when they decided to open a music club. "We debated whether to go Uptown, downtown or the Quarter," Jack Groetsch said. "We didn't have enough money to muscle in there, but we noticed that in Metairie, no one was doing original, progressive rock."

They borrowed $15,000 and set about transforming a barroom at the corner of 18th and Division streets into a music club. Its name saluted the legendary bluesman, localized with a "naturally N'Awlins" abbreviation of "howling." "We opened on a Friday," Groetsch said. "We had $400 in the bank, and a cooler full of beer. I told Jeffrey that if we didn't do business that weekend, we'd be closed by Monday."

They worked day and night, periodically refinancing the venture and plowing the money back into the business. A weekly Thursday night gig featuring The Clements Brothers helped establish the club's credibility. "It was a hoot," Groetsch said. "They were joking around and having fun, but at the same time they were blowing people away with their playing ability."

Fat City is not a normal destination for fans of original music, but Groetsch worked the phones, drumming up business. Soon the Wolf became a suburban outpost of the city's then-fledgling modern rock scene, hosting an array of now-defunct bands: Fresh Young Minds, Jet Screamer (featuring future Deadeye Dick frontman Caleb Guilliotte), The Moon Crickets, Odd Fellow's Rest, Concrete Buddha, Tabula Rasa.

"No one else was doing original music out in the suburbs, so being the odd man out drew a lot of attention," Groetsch said.

Meanwhile, he kept his eye on the Warehouse District. He believed the area was ripe for renewal, and wanted to get in on the ground floor. When he found a space at 907 SOUTH PETERS, he shocked the music community by announcing plans to uproot the Howlin' Wolf and move it into the city. Friends and fans predicted the new locale would never recreate the cozy, close-knit feel of the old room.

But they forged ahead, signing a lease for the new space before they had even sold the old club. Overextended financially, they got bogged down in the city's permitting process, delaying the opening and stretching their finances even further. "We were about busted again," Groetsch said. "It was at the point where I was in the City Council chambers going, `If I can't open up next week, we're not going to open at all.' We finally opened, and did it all over again."

And once again, it worked. Since opening in 1991, the new Howlin' Wolf has expanded even further, knocking out side walls and cutting away the ceiling to add a second-floor balcony ("every time we made a dollar," Groetsch notes, "we spent three"). The versatile space can be outfitted with tables and candles for jazz trumpeter Nicholas Payton, or cleared out for big rock shows by the likes of Alanis Morissette, who performed to an overflow crowd just as her "Jagged Little Pill" album exploded.

The club has enjoyed its share of special moments, as when former Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page sat in with his pal Mason Ruffner, or when Jackson Browne joined the Continental Drifters onstage earlier this year. But Groetsch is especially fond of introducing audiences to artists he feels deserve more attention. He booked Alison Krauss for her first local performance, before the bluegrass star had achieved mainstream status.

"I had more people come up to me after that show and thank me for bringing her to town," he said. "I led with my heart on that deal, but it worked out all the way around. There's a level of satisfaction in that that's not in doing the big, candy-coated rock shows."

The Wolf has always been a family affair. Until his death in 1994, Jack and Jeff's father handled the club's books. Brother John tended bar until he moved to Las Vegas in August. Jeff still oversees the bar's operation; Jack and his wife of 18 months, Lesley, coordinate booking and promotion.

"It hasn't been my mission to do anything new at the Wolf," Lesley Groetsch said. "It's been to bring back what Jack and Jeff created from the beginning, and bring more people's attention to it. The Wolf has this very special vibe, very local, very comfortable, very safe, on top of the music. That has to do with Jack and Jeff as people."

In 1997, Jack Groetsch looked back over the club's calendars and realized modern rock bands were featured on a disproportionate number of dates. "I didn't want to be pigeon-holed as a rock club," he said. "I enjoy it, but I like other alternatives."

So the Wolf established a weekly Thursday Jazz Night, in addition to the Monday acoustic open-mike night. The club's focus has returned to local mainstays such as George Porter Jr., The Iguanas and Snooks Eaglin, with cover charges in the $5 range.

"We're doing a lot more promoting of local bands than we used to, because we were so tied up promoting the national acts," Lesley Groetsch said. "In the process, we've brought back some of that (original) vibe. You go to the Wolf on any given night, there might be 100 to 800 people, and you feel like you know a lot of those people. The truth is, Jack and Jeff do know a lot of those people, from being in the business so long."

And the tourists that visit the Howlin' Wolf are "people who seek out local places, and want to get a feel for New Orleans when they come here," Lesley said. "When the bills are piling up and we lose a good band that we wanted to book, I pull out this file of letters from people from all over the country who have come to the Wolf and had a great experience. That's better than any sold-out show."