John Lee Hooker: That's My Story (Bluesville series, deluxe, 180g) [CRAFT RECORDINGS]

Why you'll love it

This Bluesville series reissue was cut all-analogue from the original master tapes by Matthew Lutthans and pressed on 180g vinyl at QRP. Hooker recorded it in one New York session with Cannonball Adderley's rhythm section, Sam Jones and Louis Hayes.

This edition

• Bluesville series
• 180g vinyl
• All-analogue lacquers cut from the original master tapes
• Pressed at Quality Record Pressings
• Remastered
• Stereo mix

About the album

By 1960 the American folk boom had discovered John Lee Hooker, and the jazz world was curious too. Riverside's Orrin Keepnews, better known for producing Thelonious Monk and Bill Evans, booked him into Reeves Sound Studio in New York on February 9 and let the tapes roll. Keepnews wrote the liner notes himself.

The jazz rhythm section gives Hooker's guitar a loose, swinging floor, and he responds with some of his most reflective playing. "I Need Some Money" puts his own lyrics on the Berry Gordy and Janie Bradford song, "I'm Wanderin'" stretches out past five minutes, "Wednesday Evenin' Blues" and "I Believe I'll Go Back Home" are slow and brooding, and the title track closes the album with Hooker looking back over his own life. "No More Doggin'" and "Come On and See About Me" keep the boogie close at hand.

The Jazz Review and the New York Times' Robert Shelton both praised it, and Mojo later pointed to it as the moment Hooker developed the more ruminative side of his work. He made the whole thing in a single day, which is less time than we spend deciding which Hooker record to put on first.

Also at Kops: more John Lee Hooker on vinyl · browse Blues

Tracklist

Listen

On Riverside / Craft Recordings (cat# CR00977), a reissue of the 1960 album.