Featuring: John Lee Hooker

"The great minimalistic of the blues, John Lee Hooker thinks and talks the way he plays: simple, direct with no notes wasted" Charles K. Cowdery

His classic foot stomping, solo voice and unique guitar playing have become Hooker's own style as distictive as any in music. "I used to hear Will Moore,my stepfather, when I was a kid. My style, I got from him. He played that kind of stuff- foot stomping" John L. Hooker

John L. Hooker was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi in 1917, home of the Delta Blues. At age 12, he started performing with Will Moore at county suppers, fish fries and dances in the Clarksdale area. At that time, Muddy Waters, also a young boy, was getting started the same way. Hooker then moved to Memphis, then Cincinnati and finally to Detroit. This took him nearly ten years, he was at that time, 26. He used to work in and out of music. Five years after arriving to Detroit, John Lee Hooker recorded his first hit "Boogie Chillen".

John Lee Hooker's deep almost-droning voice and his moaning guitar along with his foot stomping have become his identity in the Blues. He has never altered his style. B.B. King once said, "When John Lee Hooker plays, it's like writing his name."

Check out one of his great tunes at The Stage.

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