♦ John Lee Hooker Jr. — All Hooked Up (2012) ♦

 

John Lee Hooker Jr. — All Hooked Up
¶  "Toughened up by lots of hard living and little luck, he takes a confident, loose-yet-composed course through his own soul-blues songs whose mood lies somewhere between wry irony and dead seriousness." — DownBeat
¶  "It's extremely difficult to do what J.L.H. Jr. has done here: confront both the blessing and the burden of being heir to one of the music's most daunting legacies, while still retaining one's own identity." — David Whiteis, Living Blues Magazine
Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Born: Detroit
Album release: September 18, 2012
Record Label: Steppin' Stone Records
Duration: 3:11/3:47/4:38/3:55/5:44/4:36/3:29/4:50/3:46/3:55/3:24/3:24=>49:11
Track List:
• Tired Of Being A Housewife (Hooker Jr. / Thibeaux / Griffin / Garcia / Rogers)
• You Be My Hero (Hooker Jr. / Thibeaux / Griffin /Rogers)
• Listen To The Music (Hooker Jr. / Batiste)
• I Surrender (Hooker Jr. / Batiste)
• Hard Times (Hooker Jr. / Thibeaux / Griffin / Garcia / Rogers)
• Let Me Be (Hooker Jr. / Thibeaux / Griffin / Garcia / Rogers)
• It Must Be The Meds (Hooker Jr. / Batiste / Thibeaux / Griffin / Garcia / Rogers)
• All Hooked Up (Hooker Jr. / Batiste / Thibeaux / Griffin / Garcia / Rogers)
• I Know That's Right (Hooker Jr. / Thibeaux / Griffin / Garcia / Rogers)
• Tell It Like It Is (Hooker Jr. / Batiste)
• Pay The Rent (Hooker Jr. / Thibeaux / Griffin / Garcia / Rogers)
• Tears In My Eyes (Hooker Jr. / Thibeaux / Griffin / Garcia / Rogers)
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• Edited by: David N. Pyles  ()
• Copyright 2012, Peterborough Folk Music Society.
• This review may be reprinted with prior permission and attribution.
• A review written for the Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange
by Mark S. Tucker   ().
Website: http://www.johnleehookerjr.com
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/johnleehookerjunior#!
• Most blues tend to travel back in time to the days of hardtack and trolley cars, but the son of the hallowed John Lee Hooker, John Lee Jr., needs stray no further afield than five minutes ago to come up with today's crop of loners, heartbreakers, cheaters, lovers, and allsorts re-capturing what the blues is all about: human foibles, crawling up from despair, trying to figure out just what the hell's going on in this strange parade we call life. All Hooked Up continues that penchant and even includes a tribute to the modern soldier (You be my Hero). Ah, but don't think Johnny doesn't know his wellsprings, y'all. He comes from the best and credits dad, Johnny Guitar Watson, Louis Armstrong, and others, then jumps into Johnny Otis territory in Listen to the Music.

• Hooked is his fifth release, and the man's ensembles are always tight, jumpin' with some pretty ripping and/or rhythmically charged guitarists. On this outing, Lucky Peterson, Wilton Rabb, and Alvon Johnson sit in while John Garcia and Jeff Horan are all over the place, frequently backgrounded in order to blend into the plentiful horns. The legendary Betty Wright drops by for I Surrender, and Hard Times takes on a very Lou Rawls shape, Garcia providing a tasty middle eight (in several other songs as well) while Hooker leans back for a moment or two. In fact, where his father sang in a dark, moody, below-the-subway range, the son is in fact much more Rawls-ian all through this and all his discs.
• Like his father, rather than just lament and pine like so many bluesers, John Jr. tells stories drawing the listener into the narrative of his work-outs, buffing up the dimensions of the sonorities. He also isn't terribly fond of the macho side of the house and acknowledges the travails of women at the hands of nasty or apathetic men (Tired of Being a Housewife). As said, he's taking the blues to new places and may well be the most contemporary of his ilk. He's doing now what other blooz boyz will be putting out 20 years fom now. (Fortaken: http://www.acousticmusic.com)
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• Hooked is his fifth release, and the man’s ensembles are always tight, jumpin’ with some pretty ripping and/or rhythmically charged guitarists. On this outing, Lucky Peterson, Wilton Rabb, and Alvon Johnson sit in while John Garcia and Jeff Horan are all over the place, frequently backgrounded in order to blend into the plentiful horns. The legendary Betty Wright drops by for I Surrender, and Hard Times takes on a very Lou Rawls shape, Garcia providing a tasty middle eight (in several other songs as well) while Hooker leans back for a moment or two. In fact, where his father sang in a dark, moody, below-the-subway range, the son is in fact much more Rawls-ian all through this and all his discs.Like his father, rather than just lament and pine like so many bluesers, John Jr. tells stories drawing the listener into the narrative of his work-outs, buffing up the dimensions of the sonorities. He also isn’t terribly fond of the macho side of the house and acknowledges the travails of women at the hands of nasty or apathetic men (Tired of Being a Housewife). As said, he’s taking the blues to new places and may well be the most contemporary of his ilk. He’s doing now what other blooz boyz will be putting out 20 years fom now.
• There’s one very cool bonus. Back on All Odds Against Me, Hooker took on the guise of "Bluesman," an animated blues superhero conceived by Callicore Animation Studios in Paris, France. The cartoon appeared on a DVD accompanying the CD and was perhaps the first animated blues cartoon ever made. Likewise, All Hooked Up features a special DVD of an Callicore created animated film noir video for Hooker’s song, “Dear John.” It’s the story of a gent tossed into jail reading a “Dear John” letter that would give anyone the blues if they didn’t already have them before the arrest.
• Except when the younger Hooker sings about his father, you won’t think much about the King of the Boogie throughout All Hooked Up. Junior doesn’t have his father’s low-register growl but instead excels at narrative storytelling. This is blues for those who’ve loved them for years and All Hooked Up is perhaps the kind of release that might draw in younger generations. When Facebook is part of the mix, who wouldn’t relate to John Lee Hooker, Jr.? This is an mostly upbeat, affirming set, a good excuse to prove not all the blues sound the same.
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Author: Wesley Britton — Published: Sep 03, 2012 at 11:23 pm
• If your name is John Lee Hooker, Jr., how do you make a place for yourself in a musical genre your father helped create and shape? Judging from All Hooked Up, one answer is to take all the old formulas and overlay them with your own stories, including fresh lyrical perspectives and wisdom learned from a long life with the blues.
Born in Detroit in 1952, Hooker Jr. was only eight years old when he began performing on local radio station WJBK. After playing in Detroit clubs, at 18 he was recording with his father on such records as Senior’s Live at Soledad Prison (1972). But a life of excess derailed Junior’s path until his father died in 2001.
• Finally, at the age of 52, things jelled for the younger Hooker, who released the multi-award-winning Blues with a Vengeance (2004). This album began establishing his reputation as an artist who’s part of a generation out to modernize the blues. That success was followed by Cold as Ice (2006), All Odds Against Me (2007), and Live in Istanbul, Turkey (2010). With this much depth in Hooker’s arsenal, it shouldn’t be surprising All Hooked Up is a collection of 12 original songs full of easy confidence.
For one matter, Hooker makes his blues very topical. The lead-off track, “Tired of Being a Housewife,” describes a woman tired of all her friends being on Facebook and a husband watching porn on DVDs. “You Be My Hero” is a salute to servicemen deployed around the globe. The piano-led shuffle “Listen to the Music” includes a line from an athlete hoping fans will accept his apology. In the apparently autobiographical “Hard Times,” Hooker sings about his daddy being dead and gone and using his son’s Social Security number to get a loan. Why is Hooker so afraid? It must be “The Meds.”
• While the lyrics are right out of the headlines, much of the musical support is traditional Memphis sections with horns and fluid guitar lines featuring the work of blues guitarist, Lucky Peterson. But there is variety here. You’ll think ‘60s soul in general (and Sam and Dave in particular) in Hooker’s duet with Betty Wright on “I Surrender." Hooker swings like a finger-popping jazz singer in a lounge act for “Pay the Rent,” in which a cash-only landlord advises his tenants to put first things first at the first of the month. In fact, most of the straight-up blues numbers are advice about acting right, as in “Let Me Be” where the singer tells us he doesn’t want to waste time with people who want to shout, fight, and get into trouble. The very personal “All Hooked Up” shares the singer’s odyssey from the lowest of the lows to the redemption of his faith. (Fortaken: http://blogcritics.org)

 

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• John Lee Hooker, Jr. got started on his musical journey when he was about 8 years old -- roughly 1960 -- performing on a Detroit radio station. He was touring with his famous father by his mid-teens.

• At 18, he recorded "Live at Soledad Prison" with John Sr., but later fell victim to problems with drugs and alcohol. Apparently changed by his father's death in 2001, Hooker returned to music with "Blues With a Vengeance" in 2004, honored as Comeback Artist of the Year by the San Francisco Bay Area Blues Society, and nominations by the Blues Foundation and the Grammys.
• His latest -- "All Hooked Up" (Steppin' Stone Records), is his fifth album since then, and shows remarkable progression and musical maturity.
• The CD demonstrates Hooker's proficiency at writing and performing in a variety of styles that include the blues, a little funk, some soul, and even a few jazz-inspired moments. Guitarist Lucky Peterson guests on the set, and soulful Betty Wright joins Hooker on the sinuous ballad, "I Surrender."
• The title track is a funky recounting of Hooker's life as the son of one of the great blues giants. It's a bit ironic, isn't it? The fame of his father's blues life helps bring him down, the music offers new salvation. Sounds just about right for the blues.
This is a solid album full of original music that uses the blues as a starting point. Hooker isn't is father's bluesman, but then, who would be?
• This recording, "Dear John," is presented as an animated music video on DVD included with the CD.

• © Copyright   John Lee Hooker, Jr. All Rights Reserved
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♦ John Lee Hooker Jr. — All Hooked Up (2012) ♦

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