--- title: Top 10 Blues Guitarists | John Lee Hooker description: "Flame Tree Music: This week's Top 10 Blues Guitarist is John Lee Hooker, one of the most versatile and long-lasting bluesmen of the twentieth century." image: https://blog.flametreepublishing.com/hubfs/JohnLeeHooker_-8-1272x1600.jpg --- - [Home](https://info.flametreepublishing.com/blog) | - [ Contact & About Us](https://blog.flametreepublishing.com/contact-us) T H E   F L A M E   T R E E   B L O G ![](https://blog.flametreepublishing.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Hubspot-Header-Music-Entertainment-01-4.png?width=980&height=200&name=Hubspot-Header-Music-Entertainment-01-4.png "Hubspot-Header-Music-Entertainment-01-4.png") # Music & Entertainment Blog # Top 10 Blues Guitarists | John Lee Hooker Posted by [Laura Bulbeck](https://blog.flametreepublishing.com/classic-rock-bands/author/laura-bulbeck) - [Tweet](https://twitter.com/share) Blues is nothing without different flavours, and some of the most renown blues guitarists could boast incredible skills shaping genre and form. This week we take it one step further with John Lee Hooker, one of the most versatile and long-lasting bluesmen of the twentieth century. ### ![JohnLeeHooker_-8-1272x1600.jpg](https://blog.flametreepublishing.com/hs-fs/hubfs/JohnLeeHooker_-8-1272x1600.jpg?width=274&name=JohnLeeHooker_-8-1272x1600.jpg)A Blues Renaissance Man The original **boogie man**, John Lee Hooker (1917–2001) sustained a career of more than **50 years** with his incessant **one-chord stomp** and **half-spoken vocal style**. But behind the captivating, hypnotic rhythm Hooker found his own deep blues – one with dark tones and mysterious flurries of notes – as he groped to express, often with a wicked irony, his own feelings of pain and desire. His style was particularly infectious among British blues bands of the Sixties, notably the **Animals.** In America **Canned Heat** built a multi-platinum career out of Hooker’s boogie. ### A Man of Many Names The youngest of 11 children, Hooker was born in **Clarksdale, Mississippi**, in 1917 to a family of sharecroppers. After his parents separated he learned guitar from his stepfather before leaving home for **Memphis**, followed by **Cincinnati** and **Detroit**, where he made his first recordings in 1948. ‘Boogie Chillen’ contained all the basic elements of his style and was a **No. 1** rhythm and blues hit. Hooker immediately cashed in, recording for several different labels under a variety of **pseudonyms** (a laughable ploy given his distinctive style), and had more hits with ‘Hobo Blues’, ‘Crawling Kingsnake’ (1949) and ‘I’m In The Mood’ (1951). ### Boogie Boom In the mid-Fifties Hooker started recording with an **electric band**, heightening the rhythmic emphasis of his boogie with songs like ‘Dimples’ and ‘Boom Boom’. When these records became successful in Britain in the Sixties, he toured the UK and Europe regularly. Meanwhile, he was enjoying a parallel career as a **solo folk/blues artist** in America, although by the end of the decade he was back in the rock fold, thanks to the success of his **disciples** Canned Heat, who repaid their debt by recruiting him for *Hooker ‘N’ Heat* (1970). ### Through the Decades Further **collaborations** with Van Morrison and guitarist Elvin Bishop maintained Hooker’s profile in the Seventies, but his career **sagged** in the Eighties before a sudden and unlikely **revival** in 1989 with *The Healer*, which featured duets with Carlos Santana, Bonnie Raitt, George Thorogood, Los Lobos and the remnants of Canned Heat. The album’s success set Hooker up for the Nineties as Van Morrison, Keith Richards, Ry Cooder, Robert Cray and Albert Collins queued up to appear on **subsequent albums** including *Mr Lucky*, *Boom Boom* and *The Hook*. Hooker died in 2001 at the age of 83. ### ![JohnLeeHooker_-7-1220x1600-1.jpg](https://blog.flametreepublishing.com/hs-fs/hubfs/JohnLeeHooker_-7-1220x1600-1.jpg?width=706&height=574&name=JohnLeeHooker_-7-1220x1600-1.jpg) *Images courtesy johnleehooker.com* *Want to learn to write songs? Check out our* Songwriter’s Rhyming Dictionary available through [our website](http://www.flametreepublishing.com/Songwriters-Rhyming-Dictionary-ISBN-9781847867186.html). *Learn to play riffs from the guitar greats from blues to punk, metal and jazz with our book* Pick Up & Play Classic Riffs [here](http://www.flametreepublishing.com/Classic-Riffs-Pick-Up-and-Play.html). ### Links - See John Lee Hooker's official website [here](http://www.johnleehooker.com) - Check out John Lee Hooker’s biography, discography and [more](http://www.allmusic.com/artist/john-lee-hooker-mn0000815039) - Learn more about the blues styles of John Lee Hooker and guitarist Lightnin’ Hopkins [here](http://www.guitarworld.com/deep-john-lee-hooker-and-lightnin-hopkins) Topics: [Flame Tree Music](https://blog.flametreepublishing.com/classic-rock-bands/topic/flame-tree-music), [Blues Guitar](https://blog.flametreepublishing.com/classic-rock-bands/topic/blues-guitar), [Flame Tree Pro](https://blog.flametreepublishing.com/classic-rock-bands/topic/flame-tree-pro) ### Subscribe for email updates ### FREE Download [![FREE Digital Rock eBook](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/293166/84fddcda-9601-4729-a225-103dee1b81c6.png)](http://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/293166/84fddcda-9601-4729-a225-103dee1b81c6) Download a digital book, this special edition on **The Origins of Rock: The Fifties.** **![Origins of Rock, Classic Rock Bands](https://blog.flametreepublishing.com/hs-fs/file-274821688-jpg/images/origins_of_rock_fifties_cover_final-resized-171.jpg) ** ### About Us We have some amazing books on classic rock bands, including the **brand new **books on** David Bowie, Pink Floyd **and [Rock, A Life Story](http://www.flametreepublishing.com/Rock-A-Life-Story.html): ![FLAME-TREE-Hubspot-Head.gif](https://blog.flametreepublishing.com/hs-fs/hub/293166/file-398222920.gif?width=251&height=354&name=file-398222920.gif "FLAME-TREE-Hubspot-Head.gif") ### Follow us: [![flame tree music, chord finder, guitar scales, piano chords](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/293166/5d8b636d-f159-46fe-879a-01da634bf5ef.png)](http://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/293166/5d8b636d-f159-46fe-879a-01da634bf5ef) ### Subscribe to Email Updates ### Posts by Tag - 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