A profoundly soulful and charismatic front man (closer in style to vintage Johnny Guitar Watson or Lou Rawls than to his daddy, the late, great John Lee Hooker), Junior also acquits himself as an accomplished songwriter and lyricist with an earthy, down-home sense of humor on his Telarc debut.
Backed by the punchy Hot Sauce Horns, the tight rhythm section of keyboardist Will Griffin, bassist Frank Thibeaux and drummer Michael Skinner as well as the potent two-guitar tandem of rhythm player Jeffrey James Horan and outstanding soloist John Garcia Jr., Hooker lays down the law in convincing fashion on the rollicking title track, the defiant slow blues “You Blew It Baby” and two biting indictments on love, “Fed Up” and “Trapped.”
The reggae-fueled “Do Daddy” is his vividly rendered requiem for his famous father. He also covers his dad’s classic slow blues “I’m in the Mood.” “4 Hours Straight/Blues Man” is an X-rated riot in the audacious spirit of Memphis bluesman Bobby Rush.
Related Posts
Sonny Terry/Brownie McGhee: Backwater Blues
Start Your Free Trial to Continue Reading
Become a JazzTimes member to explore our complete archive of interviews, profiles, columns, and reviews written by music’s best journalists and critics.
Jonathan Butler: The Simple Life
Jonathan Butler’s optimistic music belies a dirt-poor childhood growing up in a South Africa segregated by apartheid. Live in South Africa, a new CD and DVD package, presents a sense of the resulting inner turmoil, mixed with dogged resolve, that paved the way to his status as an icon in his country and successful musician outside of it. Looking back, the 46-year-old Butler says today, the driving forces that led to his overcoming apartheid-the formal policy of racial separation and economic discrimination finally dismantled in 1993-were family, faith and abundant talent.
“When we were kids, our parents never talked about the ANC [African National Congress] or Nelson Mandela,” he says. Butler was raised as the youngest child in a large family. They lived in a house patched together by corrugated tin and cardboard, in the “coloreds only” township of Athlone near Cape Town. “They never talked about struggles so we never knew what was happening.”
Start Your Free Trial to Continue Reading
Become a JazzTimes member to explore our complete archive of interviews, profiles, columns, and reviews written by music’s best journalists and critics.
Harry Connick, Jr.: Direct Hits
Two decades after his commercial breakthrough, Harry Connick Jr. taps legendary producer Clive Davis for an album of crooner roots and beloved tunes
Scott LaFaro
Previously unavailable recordings and a new bio illuminate the legend of bassist Scott LaFaro