John Lee Hooker...........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.

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 inspiring Van 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-rocker George Thorogood's act. --Jerry McCulley (Amazon.com)

1. Let's Go Out Tonight
2. Peace Lovin' Man
3. Stella Mae
4. I Put My Trust In You
5. I'm In The Mood
6. You Know, I Know
7. I'll Never Trust Your Love Again
8. One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer
9. The Waterfront
10. This Land Is Nobody's Land
11. Deep Blue Sea
12. Nobody Knows
13. Mustang Sally And GTO
14. Lead Me
15. Catfish
16. I Can't Quit You Baby
17. Want Ad Blues
18. House Rent Blues

Real Folk Blues