John Lee Hooker: The Real Folk Blues (180g, Chess 75 series) [CHESS]

Why you'll love it

A remastered 180g pressing in a tip-on gatefold sleeve, part of the Chess 75 series. Hooker cut these nine originals in Chicago in 1966, including the first version of "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer".

This edition

• Chess 75 series
• 180g vinyl, remastered
• Tip-on gatefold sleeve
• Etched runouts

About the album

By 1966 John Lee Hooker had been recording for nearly twenty years, for just about every label that would have him, and Chess brought him into its Chicago studio for this set in its Real Folk Blues series. Lafayette Leake plays piano and organ and Eddie Burns adds a second guitar, but the centre of it all is Hooker's voice and that stomping, hypnotic guitar.

AllMusic called it "a fetching mix of raucously fun up-tempo cuts and starkly slow classics", and that's the shape of it: "Let's Go Out Tonight" rolls on for seven minutes, "Stella Mae" and "I'm In The Mood" boogie, and "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer" became a bar-band standard. Hooker recorded under so many names and for so many labels that collectors still argue about it; this one, at least, is easy to find.

Tracklist

Listen

Out June 19, 2026 on Chess (cat# LPS1508), a reissue of the 1966 album.