Rock Singer, Blues Musician. Alan Christie Wilson was born to John Wilson and Shirley Brigham in the Boston suburb of Arlington, MA on July 4, 1943. Due to Wilson's extreme nearsightedness, and scholarly nature, he acquired the nickname "The Blind Owl." Wilson developed a fascination with blues music as a teen, after a friend played a Muddy Waters record for him, The Best of Muddy Waters. Later inspired by Little Walker, he took up harmonica, and soon after, the acoustic guitar after hearing a John Lee Hooker record. After graduating from Arlington High School in 1961, he majored in music at Boston University. Wilson developed into a dedicated student of early blues, writing a number of articles for the Broadside of Boston newspaper and the folk-revival magazine Little Sandy Review, including a piece on bluesman Robert Pete Williams. The early 1960's saw a "rediscovery" of pre-war blues artists by young, white blues enthusiasts, including delta blues singer Son House. After House's "rediscovery" in 1964, it was evident that he had forgotten his songs due to his long absence from music. Wilson showed him how to play the songs House had recorded in 1930 and 1942, by demonstrating them on guitar to revive House's memory. House recorded Father of Folk Blues in 1965 which featured Wilson on harmonica and guitar on two selections. After moving to California, Wilson met fellow blues enthusiast Bob Hite at a record store and together founded Canned Heat in 1965. Their first big live performance was the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 where they performed renditions of blues classics "Rollin' and Tumblin'," "Bullfrog Blues," and "Dust My Broom." Wilson wrote and sang the band's break out hit "On the Road Again," on the band's second release, Boogie With Canned Heat. Canned Heat's third album Living the Blues, included the band's best-known song, also sung by Wilson, "Going Up the Country," which embodied the "back to nature" attitude of the late 1960's. The "rural hippie anthem" became the unofficial theme song for the Woodstock Festival where Canned Heat performed at sunset on August 16, 1969. In May 1970, Canned Heat teamed up with John Lee Hooker for Wilson's last recording, "Hooker 'N' Heat." Hooker stated that Wilson was the "greatest harmonica player ever." Wilson was also a passionate conservationist who loved reading books on botany and ecology. In 1970, Wilson established a conservation fund called Music Mountain in the Skunk Cabbage Creek area of California to purchase a grove to be added to Redwood National Park. The purpose of this organization was to raise money for the preservation of the coastal redwood, which Wilson saw increasingly endangered by pollution, and urban sprawl. Wilson was cremated and his ashes were later scattered in Sequoia National Park amongst the giant redwoods he passionately loved.