John Lee Hooker, Jr.
Blues with a Vengeance

(Kent)

First Appeared in The Music Box, April 2005, Volume 12, #4

Written by John Metzger

On his initial outing Blues with a Vengeance, John Lee Hooker, Jr. covers three of his father’s most popular songs (Dimples, Boom Boom, and One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer), and although this isn’t an entirely unexpected tactic for him to take, it is unfortunate one. True, he reinterprets the tunes and recasts them in a different light, but comparisons to the originals are impossible to avoid, particularly given Hooker, Jr.’s lineage. As a result, the new renditions can’t help but to feel inferior, no matter how well-performed they might be. As for the other nine tracks on the album, they fare much better, proving definitively that Hooker, Jr. has the blues coursing through his veins. Wisely, he steers clear of copping the elder statesman’s swampy, Delta roar — in fact, he avoids it entirely — and instead, he fuses bits of R&B and jazz into his gritty, urban approach. Indeed, with its bawdy lyrics, Suspicious is a direct descendent of Bobby Rush’s musings; She Wasn’t Nothin’ but a Devil electrifies Professor Longhair’s New Orleans-boogie; and Blues Ain’t Nothin’ but a Pimp resurrects both T-Bone Walker and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Courtesy of a backing band that includes Herbie Hancock protegé Will "Roc" Griffin as well guitarist John Garcia, Jr., who was an associate of Hooker, Sr., the surrounding music is suitably spicy, but it’s Hooker, Jr.’s passionate, fiery, and soulful vocals that make Blues with a Vengeance such a confident and promising debut.

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Ratings

1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!

Copyright © 2005 The Music Box