Real Folk Blues / More Real Folk Blues
Delta native son turned Detroit and Chicago electric-blues groove king John Lee Hooker had been recording for nearly 20 years (for at least a half-dozen labels under as many aliases) when he cut these tracks for Chess Records in the mid-'60s. If the original concept behind the Chicago label's Real Folk Blues series (also featuring collections by legendsMuddy Waters,Howlin' Wolf, andSonny Boy Williamson) belatedly attempted to cash in on a '60s acoustic folk boom forever changed the minuteDylanstrapped on an electric guitar, it yielded some blues gems nonetheless.Hooker's 1966 Chess sessions find him working in a band format, which could be a risky proposition for a musician all too happy to meditate endlessly on a single groove and often unrestrained by the niceties of meter and 12-bar form. But with the able and alert assistance of guitarist Eddie Burns, pianist Lafayette Leake, and drummer Fred Below, Hooker stretches out and turns in one of his most expressive and inventive vocal performances. Whether he's loping through the feverish boogie of "Let's Go Out Tonight," ruminating on romance in a sinister remake of his '51 hit "I'm in the Mood," or expanding the genre's very boundaries with the eerie "Waterfront" (a track liner-note writer Chris Morris astutely credits for inspiringVan Morrison's vocal style), Hooker makes you believe every word. This is also the session that yielded the original "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer," long a staple of latter-day blues-rockerGeorge Thorogood's act.--Jerry McCulley