The guest list was a who’s who of the late ’80s / early ’90s blues revival movement… Albert Collins, Johnnie Johnson, Robert Cray, Booker T, Carlos Santana, Keith Richards, Van Morrison, Johnny Winter, John Hammond, Ry Cooder, Chester Thompson, Deacon Jones… And that’s not even close to the finish. Imagine how important an artist you would have to be to attract that calibre of backing group. John Lee Hooker was that person.
Hooker’s 1989 cassette/CD/record The Healer ushered in the idea of these star-studded blues albums with a guest list headlined by slide guitar legend Bonnie Raitt. But if anyone thought John Lee’s 1991 sequel – Mr Lucky – would struggle to follow The Healer, they were making a big mistake.
Mr Lucky is not just a showcase for a raft of high-ranking star instrumentalists, driven from the front by the authoritative focal point of JLH’s sonic presence. It’s a collection of incredibly memorable works of blues art, spanning all the emotions, all the textures.
The cassette is a true chrome job, identified as such, and displaying the blueish-black emulsion and familiar aroma of authenticity. And as you’d expect, sound reproduction is seriously good. You hear that warm transparency synonymous with a good chrome tape, and the bass rendition is something to behold.
Another tell-tale sign of a chrome audio cassette in professional use is the relatively low reading on the tape deck’s level meter as the music cranks up to full volume. That modest level was the optimum for chrome, and any signal to noise issues were taken care of by the “Dobbly”, to quote one Ms Jeanine Pettibone. Here’s the cassette’s own declaration…
“This tape is mastered to Dolby “B” standards for noise reduction. Decrease the treble when playing on non-Dolby equipment.”
The label is Silvertone Records, and the product code OREC 519. Unfortunately, by the early 1990s, paper cassette labels had long since been stripped of their industry standard status in favour of text stamped directly on the plastic tape casing. But in an age when CDs were already well along the road of making cassette releases obsolete, just the outlay of a premium quality tape reel was something to be grateful for.
By 1991, many pricey commercial tapes were distributed on cheap, normal bias media that depended wholly on Dolby to operate even at an acceptable signal to noise ratio. This tape, conversely, is sonically spectacular in every way. And that, to most music lovers, is all that matters.
Tape Tardis 