Blues Revue Magazine
Bill Wasserzieher
JOHN LEE HOOKER JR.: ALL ODDS AGAINST ME (STEPPIN' STONE/KOCH)
Life's not necessarily easy for the child of a famous man. Being the bearer
of a legacy can be either a leg up or a kick where it hurts. Just ask John
Lee Hooker Jr., who lives in a blues shadow so large it could swallow a
lesser talent whole. But as he told Blues Revue in 2006, "My Dad was a
mountain, and I'm a valley. My father was a traditional bluesman, and Iım
modern. I sing what I call current-event blues."
And that's exactly what he does on All Odds Against Me, a 12-song collection
(plus a bonus video) thatıs as good as any other genre-straddling
soul/R&B/blues release this year. Make no mistake, the younger Hooker
isn't singing the dark, moody music of his father. He's as urban and urbane as
Johnny "Guitar" Watson and Bobby "Blue" Bland, with the lyrical gift of a
poet. In fact, itıs not much of an exaggeration to say he packs as many
well-chosen words into a single song as his father did into an entire album.
Junior Hooker, as heıs often called, also has an assured vocal style
sometimes reminiscent of Lou Rawls at his jazz/pop finest. Hooker's third
release, following 2004's Blues With a Vengeance and 2006's Cold as Ice,
finds him working with a first-rate backing band, using big, brassy
arrangements, and supported by guitarist John Garcia Jr., who also worked
with the senior Hooker.
All these strengths are evident from the earliest notes of "Dear John," the
album's raucous opening track. It tells the story of a man busted in San
Francisco's Tenderloin District who's so stoned he thinks the police cruiser
lights are special effects from the drugs he's scored. Stuck in lockup days
later, he receives a letter from his lady, who says she's ditching him for a
new boyfriend and is "about to become the recipient of everything you ever
had" She ends the letter with the line, "I would have sent you $10 but I
already sealed the envelope." Talk about a cautionary tale. The remainder of
the album continues to address what Freudians call the gender conundrum. On
"Extra-Marital Affair," Junior sings about a married musician with a female
fan who turns up in every city he visits, regardless of the continent.
There's a large dose of humor in these songs, even when Hooker sings about a
minimum-wage worker who'd like to call in sick but canıt because he has no
health benefits. Then along comes Friday, when he gets paid and hopes to get
laid, only to get hit with a subpoena. If he didn't have bad luck ...
Hooker's delivery is so dead-on that listeners might begin to wonder whether
the tales he tells are true. It's more likely that they represent the work
of an artist who knows that good singing, playing, and storytelling add up
to great music. |