I Feel Good!

Performer: John Lee Hooker
Artist: Lowell Fulson
Distributor: Redeye Music Distribution

Notes: Personnel includes: John Lee Hooker (vocals, guitar); Lowell Fulson (guitar). Includes liner notes by Bruce Flett. Digitally remastered by Ron Capone. Nine songs recorded double-quick in one session, with Lowell Fulson on lead guitar on most of it -- the rare embellishment on a Hooker release makes for unusually complex and rewarding listening, instrumentally speaking, beneath Hooker's ominous vocals. The textures on this reissue are very crisp and vivid, with a crunchiness that should make this a CD of choice for Hooker's rock fans, much more so than, say, the Canned Heat collaborations -- Hooker and Fulson make a mean team on "Dazie Mae." Among the other highlights is Hooker's own take on the blues standard "Rollin' and Tumblin'," done here as "Roll and Tumble." The uncredited band that shows up on some of these cuts (which, in some instances, may have originated in Paris) is loose enough to follow Hooker, and he and Fulson play like one person together. ~ Bruce Eder I FEEL GOOD brings together Hooker studio sessions that feature a crack backing band, with Lowell Fulson on lead guitar. With an emphasis on the man's famous boogie woogie rhythms (as evidenced by the title track and "Roll and Tumble"), Hooker pushes through these nine cuts with a dark intensity--his guitar sending out raw, pulsing patterns, his understated vocal delivery sounding tortured and careless at once. In tracks like "Looking Back Over My Day" and "Come On Baby," Hooker downshifts to smoky slow-tempos, a mode equally perfect for his expressive, down-and-dirty guitar/vocal talents. His rapport with the band is particularly noteworthy, as the musicians seem to read the pacing of Hooker's songs and playing with ease. I FEEL GOOD is vintage Hooker, and an excellent example of what the legendary bluesman can do with a full band.

John Lee Hooker is the most elemental of the electric blues giants. His spooky musical minimalism--plaintive yet powerful vocals coupled with guitar work alternately haunting and toe-tapping--has inspired countless artists, from contemporaries like Slim Harpo to acolytes the Rolling Stones. Few, however, can summon up the inexplicable erotic charge at the heart of Hooker's best performances. The patented "boogie" rhythm upon which seemingly every blues-rock and hard rock band of the 1970s wrought variations was virtually invented by Hooker. One of the most-recorded post-war bluesmen, Hooker released records on countless labels, working much of the time in Detroit and Chicago. He kept working well into his eighties, his style growing ever more refined and penetrating.

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