John Lee Hooker – “Mr Lucky” Audio Cassette

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.

John Lee Hooker – Boom Boom (1992)

It’s now getting on for a hundred years since John Lee Hooker was born. Regrettably, he died in 2001, but he surely must remain as one of the most memorable genuine and fully authentic blues artists of all time.

It’s widely felt that in the business of popular music, once an artist hits his/her forties (if not before), his/her appeal to the main sector of the commercial market will diminish to a critical low. There are exceptions, but very few artists aged well over 70(!) could have reached out to the mass market, from college kids right through to pensioners, the way John Lee Hooker did in the early 1990s.