The Healer

Performer: John Lee Hooker
Artist: Carlos Santana; Santana Band; Bonnie Raitt; Robert Cray; Canned Heat; Los Lobos; George Thorogood; Charlie Musselwhite
Distributor: BMG (distributor)

Notes: Personnel: John Lee Hooker (vocals, guitar, 12-string guitar, National Steel guitar); Bonnie Raitt (vocals, slide guitar); Roy Rogers (guitar, slide guitar); David Hidaldo (guitar, accordion); George Thorogood, Robert Cray, Carlos Santana, Cesar Rosas, Henry Vestine (guitar); Charlie Musselwhite (harmonica); Steve Berlin (saxophone); Chester Thompson (keyboards, synthesizer); Larry Taylor, Conrad Lozano, Richard Cousins (bass); Louie Perez, Scott Matthews, Fito de la Parra, Ndugu Chancler (drums); Armando Peraza (congas); Chepito Areas (timbales). Producers: Roy Rogers, Carlos Santana, Jim Gaines. Engineers: Sam Lehmer, Jim Gaines, Mark Lynette. Recorded at Russian Hill Recording Studios, San Francisco, California; The Plant, Sausalito, California; Leon Haywood Studios, Los Angeles, California. Includes liner notes by John Bitzer. Personnel: John Lee Hooker (vocals, guitar); David Hildago (guitar, accordion); Roy Rogers, Henry Vestine, Cesar Rosas (guitar); Steve Berlin (saxophone), Chester Thompson (keyboards, synthesizer); Richard Cousins, Larry Taylor, Conrad Lozano, Steve Ehrmann (bass); Scott Matthews, Fito De La Parra, Louie Perez, Ndugu Chancler (drums); Chepito Areas, Armando Peraza (percussion). Producers: Roy Rogers, Carlos Santana, Jim Gaines. Engineers: Sam Lehmer, Jim Gaines, Mark Lynette. Recorded at Russian Hill Recording Studios, San Francisco; the Plant, Sausalito, California; Leon Heywood Studios, Los Angeles, California. Includes liner notes by John Bitzer. When popular culture embraced John Lee, purists turned up their noses. They should have been pleased that the world's greatest living Delta bluesman was going to make some money before he turned up his toes. Teaming up with Carlos Santana, Bonnie Raitt, Los Lobos, Canned Heat (not for the first time) and others, lent Hooker's blues a contemporary gloss. It took the album to the upper reaches of the album charts around the world, brought him a number of Grammy awards and a new career in advertising. The blues is not only a healer, it drinks brandy and wears jeans. The Santana guitar solo on the title track is breathtaking and Hooker is the coolest senior citizen in the world.

Q (8/00, p.118) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Proved that his blues crossed temporal and racial divides....testifying that even as a septuagenarian his power remained undiminished."

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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