AMG Review of Detroit: 1948-1949

Ronnie D. Lankford
All Music Guide

Acoustic or electric, alone or with a few friends, John Lee Hooker is always interesting. He has the gift to take the typical three-chord blues song and boil it down to its essence, relying on two, and sometimes no more than one, chord. Detroit 1948-1949 captures him early in his career, delivering 16 songs on solo guitar (both acoustic and electric) and four with a raucous band. Savoy purchased the recordings -- perhaps illegally since Hooker was under contract elsewhere -- and never got around to issuing more than a few of them. It is funny to hear Hooker refer to himself in several places as "Slim," part of his effort to throw the record labels off the trail of his multiple commitments. These recordings reveal a bluesman that had already found his voice on numbers like "Landing Blues" and "Shady Grove Blues." This second number features the less than cheerful lyric, "Well they tell you the graveyard, is a low down dirty place/they take you way down to the graveyard, lord they throw dirt in your face." These lyrics are delivered in his characteristically uneven lines and punctuated by his idiosyncratic guitar playing. Also of special note are the four tracks featuring Hooker playing acoustic guitar, with energetic cuts like "Boogie Awhile" showing that his style remained intact plugged or unplugged. All of these songs are credited to Hooker and include no less than five songs with the word "boogie" in the title. While his voice lacks its noted resonance on these early recordings, it is nonetheless distinct. The detailed liner notes attempt to unravel just when these songs were recorded and under what circumstances. This makes for entertaining reading, but the important thing is the recording itself. It'll be a blessing to Hooker fans that these recordings are now available for everybody to enjoy.