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블루스 명곡모음 앨범 전곡듣기 Feel the Blues Vol.Ⅴ-2
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[참 조] ▒ ▒ ▒ Gov't Mule - Biography ▒ ▒ ▒ |
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The Deep End, Vol.1 [2001년] |
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1 Fool's Moon 5:52
2 Life on the Outside 3:47
3 Banks of the Deep End 5:56
4 Down and Out in New York City 6:12
5 Effigy 9:06
6 Maybe I'm a Leo 6:07
7 Same Price 3:36
8 Soulshine 7:47
9 Sco-Mule 6:10
10 Worried Down With the Blue 8:43 
11 Beautifully Broken 6:01
12 Tear Me Down 6:10
13 Sin's a Good Man's Brother 4:12 |
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Album Review
With the death of bassist Allen Woody, the surviving members of Gov't Mule faced that familiar question of how to carry on. Their answer is this sprawling set, on which a cavalcade of bassists and other visitors fly through the Mule tracks, each fitting into the groove in his own way. Drummer Matt Abts is especially adept at accommodating these guests, shifting from a medium-tempo plod behind the clean-picked lines and world-weary vocals of Jack Bruce on "Fool's Moon" to a four-beat slam-out, reminiscent of "Dance to the Music," to accommodate former Sly Stone side monster Larry Graham during "Life on the Outside." And on "Same Price" he hammers fills behind Who alumnus John Entwistle with an energy that recalls Kenny Jones, if not quite Keith Moon, while Warren Haynes approximates Pete Townshend's harmony-driven style. With the band's rugged sound providing common reference, the styles of each bassist prove easy to discern. Those who play inside the groove make their presence known through stealthy insinuation, like Flea on a catlike prowl through "Down and Out in New York City." on "Tear Me Down," Bootsy Collins follows a different tack, by flitting against the band's heavy tread with nimble lines that dance in and out of wah-wah effects, thumb-slap funk, and sly interactions with former P-Funk colleague Bernie Worrell's Minimoog. Allen Woody himself makes a posthumous appearance, on a previously unreleased cover of Grand Funk Railroad's "Sin's a Good Man's Brother." Here, the band stretches into a comfortable, loose, Hendrix-like feel, as all three members jam with intuitive interaction and raw passion; no other performance here feels quite so natural. |
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The leaders of Gov't Mule, Warren Haynes and Allen Woody, should be well known to Allman Brothers fans for their stint in Southern rock's most famous native sons. In 1989 Haynes became the second replacement for Duane Allman, providing a good foil for Gregg Allman and Dickey Betts on guitar and vocals; Woody filled out the Allman sound on bass. Five years after their debut, the duo joined drummer Matt Abts in the side project Gov't Mule, a band in which the Allman Brothers' influence is apparent but complicated with the psychedelic, bluesy power trio feel of Cream.
Gov't Mule debuted in 1995 with a self-titled album on Capricorn Records, followed by the stellar concert date Live at Roseland Ballroom. The studio follow-up, Dose, appeared in early 1998; another concert set, Live...with a Little Help from Our Friends, followed a year later, with the complete show later appearing as a four-disc limited-edition set. A new studio effort, Life Before Insanity, appeared in early 2000. A vital member of the band was lost, however, on August 26, 2000, when Woody was found dead in a hotel room in New York City. The band had been preparing to record their next album, and after a time, Gov't Mule finally decided to carry on with the project, this time with guest bassists ranging from Flea to Bootsy Collins.
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The two-volume Deep End series for ATO Records resulted. Phish bassist Mike Gordon also got involved in the project, filming the recording of the albums for a planned documentary. In mid-September 2001, the group hit the road for a six-week tour in support of Deep End, Vol. 1; Oteil Burbridge filled in as bassist for most of the dates.
The second volume of Live...with a Little Help from Our Friends appeared in 2002 and the Deepest End: Live in Concert CD and DVD in 2003. one year later saw the release of Déjà Voodoo, Gov't Mule's first studio effort since Woody's death. It featured his official replacement, bassist Andy Hess, as well as new keyboardist Danny Louis. The same lineup released High & Mighty in 2006. The two-volume Benefit Concert series followed in 2007.
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[참 조] ▒ ▒ ▒ Oreo Blue - Biography ▒ ▒ ▒ |
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Live by Demand [2003년] |
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1 Shake It Loose 3:50
2 Speak of the Devil 5:23
3 Long Gone 5:24
4 Big Mistake 3:01
5 Hot Saturday Night 3:00
6 Reposess My Heart 3:35
7 Down the Road 5:22
8 Minor Blues for a Major Person 8:04 
9 Nobody Like My Baby 4:07
10 What You Think About Me 3:30
11 Rock and Roll All Night 3:44
12 Milagro 4:36
13 Year of Pain 4:13
14 Too Much Conversation 9:22
15 Bobby McGee 4:30
16 Knockin on Heavens Door 10:42
17 I'm Alright [Extended Mix] 12:05
18 Rock Me Baby 10:23
19 Watchtower 11:34 |
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[참 조] ▒ ▒ ▒ Bobby Womack - Biography ▒ ▒ ▒ |
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Home Is Where the Heart Is [1976년] |
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1 Home Is Where the Heart Is
2 A Just a Little Bit Salty
3 Standing in the Safety Zone
4 one More Chance on Love
5 How Long
6 I Could Never Be Satisfied
7 Something for My Head
8 A Change Is Gonna Come 
9 We've onl y Just Begun |
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Album Review
Bobby Womack's move to the Columbia imprint heralded a shift from the earthy deep soul sensibility of his previous records to a slicker, more sophisticated approach in step with the changing sound of contemporary R&B. Somewhat surprisingly, the transition not onl y proves seamless, but in fact Home Is Where the Heart Is looms as Womack's most compelling LP in some time. Though recorded in both Muscle Shoals and Los Angeles, it's to the album's credit that its disparate parts fit together like a well-oiled machine. Womack's wonderfully gruff vocals adapt well to the warmth and elegance of songs like "How Long," "Something for My Head," and one More Chance on Love," and he performs with a passion and focus absent from his final United Artists efforts. |
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A veteran who paid his dues for over a decade before getting his shot at solo stardom, Bobby Womack persevered through tragedy and addiction to emerge as one of soul music's great survivors. Able to shine in the spotlight as a singer or behind the scenes as an instrumentalist and songwriter, Womack never got his due from pop audiences, but during the late '60s and much of the '70s, he was a consistent hitmaker on the R&B charts, with a high standard of quality control. His records were quintessential soul, with a bag of tricks learned from the likes of Sam Cooke, Wilson Pickett, and Sly Stone, all of whom Womack worked closely with at one time or another. Yet often, they also bore the stamp of Womack's own idiosyncratic personality, whether through a lengthy spoken philosophical monologue or a radical reinterpretation of a pop standard. An underrated guitarist, Womack helped pioneer a lean, minimalist approach similar to that of Curtis Mayfield, and was an early influence on the young Jimi Hendrix. Additionally, his songs have been recorded by numerous artists in the realms of both R&B and rock, and the best of them rank as all-time classics.
Bobby Dwayne Womack was born in Cleveland on March 4, 1944. His upbringing was strict and religious, but his father Friendly also encouraged his sons to pursue music as he had (he sang and played guitar in a gospel group). In the early '50s, while still a child, Bobby joined his siblings Cecil, Curtis, Harry, and Friendly Jr. to form the gospel quintet the Womack Brothers. They were chosen to open a local show for the Soul Stirrers in 1953, where Bobby befriended lead singer Sam Cooke; following this break, they toured the country as an opening act for numerous gospel groups. When Cooke formed his own SAR label, he recruited the Womack Brothers with an eye towards transforming them into a crossover R&B act. Learning that his sons were moving into secular music, Friendly Womack threw them out of the house, and Cooke wired them the money to buy a car and drive out to his Los Angeles offices. The Womack Brothers made several recordings for SAR over 1960 and 1961, including a few gospel sides, but Cooke soon convinced them to record R&B and renamed them the Valentinos. In 1962, they scored a Top Ten hit on the R&B charts with "Lookin' for a Love," and Cooke sent them on the road behind James Brown to serve a boot-camp-style musical apprenticeship. Bobby eventually joined Cooke's backing band as guitarist. The Valentinos' 1964 single "It's All Over Now," written by Bobby, was quickly covered by the Rolling Stones with Cooke's blessing; when it became the Stones' first U.K. number one , Womack suddenly found himself a rich man.
Cooke's tragic death in December 1964 left Womack greatly shaken and the Valentinos' career in limbo. Just three months later, Womack married Cooke's widow, Barbara Campbell, which earned him tremendous ill will in the R&B community; many viewed him as a shady opportunist looking to cash in on Cooke's legacy, especially since Campbell was significantly older than Womack. According to Womack, he was initially motivated to look after Campbell in an unstable time, not to tarnish the memory of a beloved mentor. Regardless, Womack found himself unable to get his solo career rolling in the wake of the scandal; singles for Chess ("I Found a True Love") and Him ("Nothing You Can Do") were avoided like the plague despite their quality. The Valentinos cut a couple of singles for Chess in 1966, "What About Me" and "Sweeter Than the Day Before," which also failed to make much of a splash. To make ends meet, Womack became a backing guitarist, first landing a job with Ray Charles; he went on to make a valuable connection in producer Chips Moman, and appeared often at Moman's American Studio in Memphis, as well as nearby Muscle Shoals, AL. In the process, Womack appeared on classic recordings by the likes of Joe Tex, King Curtis, and Aretha Franklin (Lady Soul), among others. He recorded singles for Keymen and Atlantic without success, but became one of Wilson Pickett's favorite songwriters, contributing the R&B Top Ten hits "I'm in Love" and "I'm a Midnight Mover" (plus 15 other tunes) to the singer's repertoire.
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Womack had been slated to record a solo album for Minit, but had given Pickett most of his best material, which actually wound up getting his name back in the public eye in a positive light. In 1968, he scored the first charting single of his solo career with "What Is This?" and soon hit with a string of inventively reimagined pop covers — "Fly Me to the Moon," "California Dreamin'," and "I Left My Heart in San Francisco," the former two of which reached the R&B Top 20. A songwriting partnership with engineer Darryl Carter resulted in the R&B hits "It's Gonna Rain," "How I Miss You Baby," and "More Than I Can Stand" over 1969-1970. A series of label absorptions bumped Womack up to United Artists in 1971, which proved to be the home of his greatest solo success; in the meantime, he contributed the ballad "Trust Me" to Janis Joplin's masterpiece Pearl, and the J. Geils Band revived "Lookin' for a Love" for their first hit. He also teamed up with jazz guitarist Gabor Szabo on the LP High Contrast, which debuted Womack's composition "Breezin'" (which, of course, became a smash for George Benson six years later). Most importantly, however, Womack played guitar on Sly & the Family Stone's There's a Riot Goin' on, a masterpiece of darkly psychedelic funk that would have an impact on Womack's own sound and sense of style.
Womack issued his first UA album, Communication, in 1971, which kicked off a string of excellent releases that ran through the first half of the decade. In addition to several of Womack's trademark pop covers, the album also contained the original ballad "That's the Way I Feel About 'Cha," which climbed all the way to number two on the R&B chart and became his long-awaited breakout hit. The 1972 follow-up Understanding spawned Womack's first chart-topper, "Woman's Gotta Have It," co-written with Darryl Carter and stepdaughter Linda (Womack divorced Barbara Campbell in 1970). The follow-up "Harry Hippie," a gently ironic tribute to Womack's brother, also hit the R&B Top Ten. Later that year, Womack scored the blaxploitation flick Across 110th Street; the title cut was later revived in the 1998 Quentin Tarantino film Jackie Brown. 1973's The Facts of Life had an R&B number two hit in a rearrangement of the perennial "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out," and the following year's Lookin' for a Love Again found Womack revisiting his Valentinos hit; the re-recorded "Lookin' for a Love" became his second number one R&B single and his onl y Top Ten hit on the pop charts. Follow-up single "You're Welcome, Stop on By" made the R&B Top Five.
Womack was by this time a seasoned veteran of the rock & roll lifestyle, having befriended the likes of the Rolling Stones, the late Janis Joplin, and Sly Stone. After his brother Harry was murdered by a jealous girlfriend in 1974 (in Bobby's own apartment), the drug usage began to take a more serious turn. Womack scored further R&B Top Ten hits with 1975's "Check It Out" and 1976's "Daylight," the latter of which seemed to indicate a longing for escape from the non-stop partying that often masked serious depression. Despite Womack's new marriage to Regina Banks, the song was a sign that things were coming to a head. Womack pushed UA into letting him do a full album of country music, something he'd always loved but which the label regarded as commercially inadvisable (especially under the title Womack reportedly wanted to use: Step Aside, Charley Pride, Give Another Nigger a Try). They eventually relented, and when BW Goes C&W met with predictably minimal response, UA palmed the increasingly difficult Womack off on Columbia. A pair of albums there failed to recapture his commercial momentum or reinvent him for the disco age, and he moved to Arista for 1979's Roads of Life, which appeared not long after the sudden death of his infant son.
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At a low point in his life, Womack took a bit of time off from music to gather himself. He appeared as a guest vocalist on Jazz Crusader Wilton Felder's 1980 solo album Inherit the Wind, singing the hit title track, and subsequently signed with black entrepreneur Otis Smith's independent Beverly Glen label. His label debut, 1981's The Poet, was a critically acclaimed left-field hit, rejuvenating his career and producing a number three R&B hit with "If You Think You're Lonely Now." Unfortunately, money disputes soured the relationship between Womack and Smith rather quickly. The Poet II was delayed until 1984, and featured several duets with Patti LaBelle, including another number three R&B hit, "Love Has Finally Come at Last." Beverly Glen released a final LP culled from Womack's previous sessions, Someday We'll All Be Free, in 1985, by which time the singer had already broken free and signed with MCA. Another hit with Wilton Felder, "(No Matter How High I Get) I'll Still Be Looking Up to You," appeared that year, and his label debut So Many Rivers produced a Top Five R&B hit in "I Wish He Didn't Trust Me So Much." 1986's Womagic reunited Womack with Chips Moman, and he also backed the Rolling Stones on their remake of "Harlem Shuffle." By the following year he'd christened himself The Last Soul Man, which proved to be his final recording for MCA.
In the years since, Womack has made high-profile returns to the music business onl y sporadically. 1994's Resurrection was recorded for Ron Wood's Slide label and featured an array of guest stars including Wood, Keith Richards, Rod Stewart, and Stevie Wonder. In 1999, he fulfilled a long-standing promise to his father (who passed away in 1981) by delivering his first-ever gospel album, Back to My Roots.
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[참 조] ▒ ▒ ▒ John Lee Hooker - Biography ▒ ▒ ▒ |
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Burnin'[1962년] |
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1 Boom Boom 2:32 
2 Process 3:49
3 Lost a Good Girl 2:51
4 A New Leaf 2:30
5 Blues Before Sunrise 3:49
6 Let's Make It 2:27
7 I Got a Letter 2:44
8 Thelma 3:31
9 Drug Store Woman 2:47
10 Keep Your Hands to Yourself 2:10
11 What Do You Say 2:27 |
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Album Review
From the vaults of Vee Jay Records comes an abundance of classic John Lee Hooker reissues, featuring original art work, running orders, and budget prices from the Collectables label. With the amount of Hooker material available on the market, some of it is of dubious quality, but you can't go wrong with these reissues. Burnin' was released in 1962 and combines 12 tracks of electric material performed by Hooker backed by a band on "Crawlin' Kingsnake," "Boom Boom," "Blues Before Sunrise," "Drug Store Woman," and "What Do You Say." All of the Hooker Vee Jay reissues are recommended. |
초기 블루스 기타를 개척한 전설적인 인물중의 하나인 존 리 후커는 이른바 ‘미시시피 블루스’를 대표한다. 존은 1917년 8월 22일(그의 생년월일은 사람들에 따라서 1915년과 1920년으로 기록되어 있는곳도 있다.) 미국 미시시피 주의 클라크스데일에 있는 델타타운에서 태어나 2001년 6월 21일 센프란시스코의 그의 집에서 83년의 인생을 조용히 마감했다.
그는 의붓 아버지 윌 무어(Will Moore)로부터 기타를 배운 그는 가스펠 등을 노래하며 음감을 키워갔고, 14세때 고향을 떠나 20대 초반까지 로버트 나잇호크(Robert Nighthawk)와 함께 멤피스에서 블루스를 연주했다.
이후 존은 디트로이트로 이사와, 생계수단으로 낮에는 공장에 다니며 돈을 벌고 밤에는 클럽 등지에서 연주생활을 했다. 그때부터 그의 연주 스타일이 자리를 잡아갔다. 당시 그의 연주 스타일은 몇가지 템포의 조합으로 이루어져 있는데 당시 밴드로서는 John의 불규칙적인 솔로를 따라가기가 매우 힘들었다고 한다.
40년대 말엽으로 들어와 존은 활발한 레코딩 활동을 하며 많은 블루스 고전들을 완성하였다. 그리고 50년대에는 높은 안목을 지닌 블루스 뮤지션 에디 커크랜드(Eddie Kirkland)와 함께 레코딩 작업을 해 더욱 확고한 명성을 다지게 된다. 이때부터 그의 음악은 대중적으로 보다 깊이 파고들 수 있게 되었다.
60년대 중반부터 미국에서는 Rock N' Roll 이 크게 히트하면서 블루스가 쇄퇴하기 시작했는데, 그럼에도 존은 'Boom Boom'이란 곡으로 영국의 백인들까지 열광시키는 대대적인 성공을 거두었고, 67년에 발매된 앨범 [House Of The Blues]는 영국차트 34위에 까지 올랐다.
이후에도 그는 71년 앨범 [Hooker N’Heat]으로 미국차트를 뒤흔들기도 했다. 80년대에도 존은 블루스 기타리스트로서 전설적인 평가를 받음과 동시에 공상과학 전문 영화감독 스티븐 스필버그가 제작한 영화 [Colour Purple]에도 음악을 제공하였다. 또한 그룹 후(The Who)의 기타리스트 피트 타운센드의 솔로앨범 [The Iron Man]에도 참여한 바 있다.
50여 년에 가까운 음악생활을 통해 방대한 분량의 음반활동을 한 그이지만, 기타만은 거의 ‘깁슨’을 고집했던 것으로 유명하다. 지난 89년 그는 산타나, 보니 레이트, 로버트 클레이, 로스 로보스, 로이 로저스, 조지 쏘로굿 등의 뮤지션들을 초빙해 [The Healer]를 완성했고, 91년에는 알버트 콜린스, 라이 쿠더, 로버트 클레이, 키츠 리차드즈, 산타나, 조니 윈터, 존 해몬드, 부커 T 존스, 밴 모리슨 등과 함께 [Mr. Lucky]를 만들기도 했다.
원로의 나이에도 불구하고 30년 이상의 나이차이가 나는 후배들과 꾸준히 음악적인 교류를 하며 심지어 잼 세션까지도 겸했던 그의 정력은 좀처럼 식을 줄을 몰랐다. 이제는 음반으로만 들을 수 있지만 그가 들려준 독특한 벤딩과 이색적인 비브라토는 블루스의 고전적인 주법으로 남아있다.
He was beloved worldwide as the king of the endless boogie, a genuine blues superstar whose droning, hypnotic one -chord grooves were at onc e both ultra-primitive and timeless. But John Lee Hooker recorded in a great many more styles than that over a career that stretched across more than half a century.
"The Hook" was a Mississippi native who became the top gent on the Detroit blues circuit in the years following World War II. The seeds for his eerily mournful guitar sound were planted by his stepfather, Will Moore, while Hooker was in his teens. Hooker had been singing spirituals before that, but the blues took hold and simply wouldn't let go. Overnight visitors left their mark on the youth, too: legends like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Charley Patton, and Blind Blake, who all knew Moore.
Hooker heard Memphis calling while he was still in his teens, but he couldn't gain much of a foothold there. So he relocated to Cincinnati for a seven-year stretch before making the big move to the Motor City in 1943. Jobs were plentiful, but Hooker drifted away from day gigs in favor of playing his unique free-form brand of blues. A burgeoning club scene along Hastings Street didn't hurt his chances any.
In 1948, the aspiring bluesman hooked up with entrepreneur Bernie Besman, who helped him hammer out his solo debut sides, "Sally Mae" and its seminal flip, "Boogie Chillen." This was blues as primitive as anything then on the market; Hooker's dark, ruminative vocals were backed onl y by his own ringing, heavily amplified guitar and insistently pounding foot. Their efforts were quickly rewarded. Los Angeles-based Modern Records issued the sides and "Boogie Chillen" — a colorful, unique travelogue of Detroit's blues scene — made an improbable jaunt to the very peak of the R&B charts.
Modern released several more major hits by "the Boogie Man" after that: "Hobo Blues" and its raw-as-an-open wound flip, "Hoogie Boogie"; "Crawling King Snake Blues" (all three 1949 smashes); and the unusual 1951 chart-topper "I'm in the Mood," where Hooker overdubbed his voice three times in a crude early attempt at multi-tracking.
But Hooker never, ever let something as meaningless as a contract stop him for making recordings for other labels. His early catalog is stretched across a road map of diskeries so complex that it's nearly impossible to fully comprehend (a vast array of recording aliases don't make things any easier).
Along with Modern, Hooker recorded for King (as the geographically challenged Texas Slim), Regent (as Delta John, a far more accurate handle), Savoy (as the wonderfully surreal Birmingham Sam & His Magic Guitar), Danceland (as the downright delicious Little Pork Chops), Staff (as Johnny Williams), Sensation (for whom he scored a national hit in 1950 with "Huckle Up, Baby"), Gotham, Regal, Swing Time, Federal, Gone (as John Lee Booker), Chess, Acorn (as the Boogie Man), Chance, DeLuxe (as Johnny Lee), JVB, Chart, and Specialty; before finally settling down at Vee-Jay in 1955 under his own name. Hooker became the point man for the growing Detroit blues scene during this incredibly prolific period, recruiting guitarist Eddie Kirkland as his frequent duet partner while still recording for Modern.
Once tied in with Vee-Jay, the rough-and-tumble sound of Hooker's solo and duet waxings was adapted to a band format. Hooker had recorded with various combos along the way before, but never with sidemen as versatile and sympathetic as guitarist Eddie Taylor and harpist Jimmy Reed, who backed him at his initial Vee-Jay date that produced "Time Is Marching" and the superfluous sequel "Mambo Chillun."
Taylor stuck around for a 1956 session that elicited two genuine Hooker classics, "Baby Lee" and "Dimples," and he was still deftly anchoring the rhythm section (Hooker's sense of timing was his and his alone, demanding big-eared sidemen) when the Boogie Man finally made it back to the R&B charts in 1958 with "I Love You Honey."
Vee-Jay presented Hooker in quite an array of settings during the early '60s. His grinding, tough blues "No Shoes" proved a surprisingly sizable hit in 1960, while the storming "Boom Boom," his top seller for the firm in 1962 (it even cracked the pop airwaves), was an infectious R&B dance number benefiting from the reported presence of some of Motown's house musicians. But there were also acoustic outings aimed squarely at the blossoming folk-blues crowd, as well as some attempts at up-to-date R&B that featured highly intrusive female background vocals (allegedly by the Vandellas) and utterly unyielding structures that hemmed Hooker in unmercifully.
British blues bands such as the Animals and Yardbirds idolized Hooker during the early '60s; Eric Burdon's boys cut a credible 1964 cover of "Boom Boom" that outsold Hooker's original on the American pop charts. Hooker visited Europe in 1962 under the auspices of the first American Folk Blues Festival, leaving behind the popular waxings "Let's Make It" and "Shake It Baby" for foreign consumption.
Back home, Hooker cranked out gems for Vee-Jay through 1964 ("Big Legs, Tight Skirt," one �� of his last offerings on the logo, was also one �� of his best), before undergoing another extended round of label-hopping (except this time, he was waxing whole LPs instead of scattered 78s). Verve-Folkways, Impulse, Chess, and BluesWay all enticed him into recording for them in 1965-1966 alone! His reputation among hip rock cognoscenti in the States and abroad was growing exponentially, especially after he teamed up with blues-rockers Canned Heat for the massively selling album Hooker 'n' Heat in 1970.
Eventually, though, the endless boogie formula grew incredibly stagnant. Much of Hooker's 1970s output found him laying back while plodding rock-rooted rhythm sections assumed much of the work load. A cameo in the 1980 movie The Blues Brothers was welcome, if far too short.
But Hooker wasn't through; not by a long shot. With the expert help of slide guitarist extraordinaire/producer Roy Rogers, the Hook waxed The Healer, an album that marked the first of his guest star-loaded albums (Carlos Santana, Bonnie Raitt, and Robert Cray were among the luminaries to cameo on the disc, which picked up a Grammy).
Major labels were just beginning to take notice of the growing demand for blues records, and Pointblank snapped Hooker up, releasing Mr. Lucky (this time teaming Hooker with everyone from Albert Collins and John Hammond to Van Morrison and Keith Richards). onc ��e again, Hooker was resting on his laurels by allowing his guests to wrest much of the spotlight away from him on his own album, but by then, he'd earned it. Another Pointblank set, Boom Boom, soon followed.
Happily, Hooker enjoyed the good life throughout the '90s. He spent much of his time in semi-retirement, splitting his relaxation time between several houses acquired up and down the California coast. When the right offer came along, though, he took it, including an amusing TV commercial for Pepsi. He also kept recording, releasing such star-studded efforts as 1995's Chill Out and 1997's Don't Look Back. All this helped him retain his status as a living legend, and he remained an American musical icon; and his stature wasn't diminished upon his death from natural causes on June 21, 2001. |
Feel the Blues
