Album Reviews

Produced by Bay area bluesman Roy Rogers (Hooker had moved there and opened a nightclub in 1997), this Grammy Award winning set of collaborations between the then 72 year old John Lee Hooker and Carlos Santana, Bonnie Raitt, Robert Cray, “Canned Heat,” Los Lobos, George Thorogood and Charlie Musselwhite, plus two stirring Hooker solos and one backed by drums and bass, brought the blues great to a new audience.

Any of the newcomers would immediately hear how influential Hooker had been on the post-war rock generation, especially overseas. You can hear Hooker in Van Morrison, Pete Townshend, Eric Burdon,Mick and Keith, and even David Bowie, if you listen carefully.

Hooker’s hard-edged, linear “sing-speak,” single chord style, and his trademarked phrase repeats and loose rhythms were as much about attitude as musicianship but Hooker had both in ample amounts, despite the relative simplicity.

The set opens ominously but pleasingly with the Santana collaboration, in which the blues great almost drowns in stock Santana-isms. It’s a fun track to listen to, with Carlos and friends setting a sensuous conga driven groove, but Hooker doesn’t really fit in and you get the idea that perhaps he’s too old to deliver.

Bonnie and John Lee disabuse you of that idea on the next tune, a smoldering “I’m In The Mood,” with Raitt, Hooker and Rogers on guitars, backed by a drum kit. As for the rest, one cut’s better than the next and they all hit tight, lean, knife-edged Hooker grooves.

Churning versions of “Baby Lee” with Robert Cray and “Cuttin’ Out” with “Canned Heat,” heat up the middle of the side with Hooker clearly having a great time and exuding his musical essence with full power.

Side two showcases the moodier, introspective side of Hooker, with Musselwhite’s harmonica on “That’s Alright” adding a haunting backdrop to a late night lament.

“Rockin’ Chair” sounds like Hooker improvising a song, backing himself on national steel guitar. “My Dream” has a ‘50’s three chord ballad feel, with Hooker delivering an astonishingly delicate and sympathetic electric guitar backing to perhaps his best vocal performance on the record.

The set ends with “No Substitute,” a mournful Hooker solo number given a late afternoon country feel by the 12 string guitar he strums insistently and percussively.

The recording is intimate and sympathetic to the cause, with plenty of honest and timbrally correct bass weight on bottom and fine textures to the drums and guitars.

Back in 1989 when this album was originally released, the LP was dying a slow death and there wasn’t much new vinyl to be had. But Chameleon issued it on a limited amount of vinyl mastered at Capitol and I got a copy that sounded so much better than the CD it was painful.

I thought it sounded pretty good but this Classic reissue cut from the original analog master is so much better than that original, I wonder what was used to master the first vinyl. No I don’t, I’d say it was a DAT tape.

Just taking “My Dream” as an example, on the new reissue there’s so much more relief to the images, so much greater textural and harmonic nuance in the cymbals (they sound like air brakes on the original) and what are clearly Hooker’s heels on the studio floor on the reissue just sounds like ill-defined clicks on the original.

This reissue makes a good record into a great experience. It brings Hooker back to life. Recommended.