John Lee Hooker entered the consciousness of most listeners in the late 1960s as a Chicago electric blues guitarist, one of the many who inspired an entire generation of English and American blues-rock bands with his driving rhythms and simple, soulful lyrics.
Before that, however, Hooker was a country acoustic player, master of the one-chord blues riff who traveled the country playing rural honkytonks and front porches for dimes and dollars, collecting stories of the people he met along the way. Detroit-based Riverside Records in 1959 recorded his first album, The Country Blues of John Lee Hooker, after officials caught his act at a local club. Craft Recordings has released a 60th anniversary edition.
The sound is clear, crisp and unadorned, just like Hooker performed it. With 42 minutes and 13 songs, including “Black Snake” and “I’m Prison Bound,” the bluesman who died in 2001 tells stories of a time, a place and a people who have forever changed the face of contemporary music. We’re eternally indebted to Hooker for so clearly speaking his truth.
