Search - John Lee Hooker :: Plays & Sings the Blues

Like other recordings from Hooker's early studio sessions, these tunes bristle with driving energy and ripple with the power of his shouted declarations. This is back porch music from the heart of the Delta, jolted to larger-than-life proportions by the electricity powering Hooker's guitar and by his own strong desire to quit sweeping factories and begin cleaning up on the charts. Although he often reworked themes by earlier bluesmen during this period, it was rare that Hooker outright covered another artist's material. So his riveting interpretations of Muddy Waters's "Please Don't Go" and Big Maceo Merriweather's "Worried Life Blues" peak this collection of solo turns that were recorded for Chess in 1951 and '52. --Ted Drozdowski