Detroit Blues

Rhino's double-disc 1991 set The Ultimate Collection (1948-1990) falls just short of the promise of its title, losing its focus toward the end of the set. That said, it comes close enough to satisfy, particularly because John Lee Hooker had such a long, convoluted discography, recording for...

Hooker's voluminous output for Vee-Jay Records is scattered across numerous compilations. This double CD contains 31 songs spanning the mid-'50s to the mid-'60s, and is probably the most extensive and satisfying retrospective of his Vee-Jay work (at least domestically)....

An acoustic date cut on February 9, 1960, this finds Hooker in top-notch form, running through a dozen performances in his instantly identifiable style. Except for three solo turns, Hooker is ably backed by bassist Sam Jones and drummer Louis Hayes, both wisely following John Lee's...

No, it's not the definitive collection, covering just Hooker's time with Vee-Jay from the mid-'50s to the mid-'60s. In fact, it's not even the definitive collection of the Vee-Jay years, although with 24 tracks, it's pretty long for a single-disc retrospective of...

This four-disc box from London's JSP Records collects an astounding 100 songs recorded by John Lee Hooker in Detroit from the years 1948 to 1952, including his first two sides ever, the signature tunes "Boogie Chillen" and "Sally Mae." Most of the tracks here are done...

Don't Turn Me from Your Door comprises a set of 1953 sessions that were originally released in 1963 and later in 1972, under the title Detroit Special. Despite its twisted historical background, this is fine, first-rate Hooker. A few tracks feature the support of guitarist/vocalist Eddie...

John Lee Hooker was a truly unique performer. His early music was both primitive (looking back towards the irregular chorus lengths of country blues) and futuristic at the same time, hinting at 1960s rock in the late 1940s. Born in the Mississippi Delta in 1917, Hooker did not record until he...

One of the most individual of all blues performers, John Lee Hooker was a master at jamming endlessly on one chord. As a singer, his voice was distinctive and often gruff while his guitar playing was both ahead of and way behind the times. It was as if he were a bluesman from 1920 who continued...

This ten-disc, 114-track box set collects sides John Lee Hooker recorded for the Vee-Jay and Gotham record imprints and includes Hooker classics like

Another of Laserlight's series of John Lee Hooker collections, Too Much Boogie carries on the trend of the rest of the series. These are superior budget albums, and together they provide an excellent record of Hooker and his music. Tim Branom's liner notes are excellent, although they...

Capitol EMI in England has assembled a well-remastered selection of John Lee Hooker's Detroit material, issued on Modern, Vee-Jay, and other small labels. While this material has been released countless times over the decades, this selection is not only representative of the tough...

Georgia-born and Detroit-raised pianist T.J. Fowler led a series of smart, jazzy R&B bands in Detroit during the late '40s and throughout the 1950s. This fascinating Classics chronological compilation lines up all of Fowler's first recordings as a leader. It opens with a couple of...

In the late '90s, Andre Williams was undergoing a bit of a renaissance as small, independent labels realized that this R&B/ ap pioneer still had plenty of gas left in the tank; they started recording him again for the first time in several decades. It also helped that enlightened times...

His name is John Lee Hooker, and he is a lues singer with a Motor City connection. But he isn't the John Lee Hooker; the bluesman heard on Blues With a Vengeance is John Lee Hooker Jr., and he was named after his legendary father (who passed away in 2001 after a very long and productive...

John Lee Hooker never met a record contract with an exclusivity clause he felt he needed to honor, and he recorded under countless different names for any label that would pay him the cash in the early going, filling the start of his imposingly lengthy discography with probably more questions...

His latest for Virgin's blues division, contains some entertaining material. It's not a classic, but it's not half-bad either. ~ Ron Wynn, All Music Guide