CD box set: John Lee Hooker, Hooker

(SPV/Blue Label, four CDs)

John Lee Hooker once said that the "best time, ever, for the blues, was in England in the 60s", and the late, great Mississippi bluesman was a major influence on the Animals, the Rolling Stones, Cream and Van Morrison. This glorious 84-track, four-CD set chronicles Hooker's remarkable history, starting out with his solo work back in the late 1940s, and the distinctive stomping blues boogie of his first major hit Boogie Chillen, and then the intimate, pained, almost conversational songs that show his singing was as startling as his guitar work: Tupelo Blues, for instance. His best known songs - Boom Boom, I Cover the Waterfront - are of course included, and the final CD provides a rousing reminder that Hooker's sometimes difficult career ended in commercial triumph, with collaborations with Robert Cray, Van Morrison and Eric Clapton. If you know a blues fan, this is their ideal Christmas present.

Contributor

Robin Denselow

The GuardianTramp

Related Content

John Etheridge/Liane Carroll: Break Even

Here is some raw blues power with the emphasis on hard-rocking or haunting blues confessions

John Fordham

13, Feb, 2009 @12:01 AM

John Mayer: Battle Studies | CD review

A high cheese quota makes the obviously talented Mayer a hard sell outside his American heartland, says Tom Hughes

Tom Hughes

19, Nov, 2009 @11:20 PM

Article image
John Mayer: 'You can't make music as a famous person'
In the US, guitarist John Mayer is seriously famous – helicopters over his house-type famous. He gives Angus Batey his view from inside the 21st-century celebrity circus

Angus Batey

19, Nov, 2009 @9:50 PM

The Wiyos: Twist

Based very loosely on The Wizard of Oz, their new album is their most adventurous to date, writes Robin Denselow

Robin Denselow

05, Jan, 2012 @10:26 PM

Billy Jenkins: I Am a Man from Lewisham | CD review
Jenkin's combination of overpowering R&B and gospel and down-at-heel lyrics is still a cutting one, writes John Fordham

John Fordham

08, Apr, 2010 @9:15 PM

Gil Evans: Blues In Orbit | CD review

This is an intriguing and overlooked curiosity from the great arranger/composer Gil Evans, writes John Fordham

John Fordham

17, Dec, 2009 @10:30 PM

John Scofield/Vince Mendoza: 54 | CD review
The strings textures may bring this a bit too close to romantic-movie music for admirers of John Scofield's gritty, Hendrix-tinged bluesiness, but his guitar sound is talkatively funky, writes John Fordham

John Fordham

27, May, 2010 @8:30 PM

Vinicius Cantuária/Bill Frisell: Lágrimas Mexicanas – review
This remarkable album is a collection of aural snapshots of Hispanic life in New York, coloured with jazz, blues and country sounds, writes John Fordham

John Fordham

20, Jan, 2011 @9:31 PM

Little Axe: If You Want Loyalty Buy a Dog – review
A former Grandmaster Flash cohort is going back to the blues with adventurous results, writes Robin Denselow

Robin Denselow

15, Dec, 2011 @9:50 PM

Mark McKnight Organ Quartet: Do or Die – review
Much of this album from young Irish guitarist Mark McKnight is stealthy and quiet but it definitely grows on you, writes John Fordham

John Fordham

22, Sep, 2011 @9:06 PM