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Rating: 
Summary: A Great Book About A Great Bluesman!
Review: Earl Hooker was one of the most influential guitarists that ever lived; not just in the blues, but in many different musical styles. His mastery of slide guitar and the wah-wah pedal (many times combining BOTH, thus creating a truly hair-raising sound) are legendary. But sadly, Earl Hooker is all but obscure now, owing to his early death (he died in 1970 at age 39 from tuberculosis), his uneven recording career (he only made 3 "true" albums; he recorded many obscure 45 rpm sides and guest appearances), and even his famous name association (he is half-cousin to the late boogie king John Lee Hooker) didn't seem to help him achieve real stardom; one he so greatly deserved!As all of the previous reviewers have pointed out, this is an extensively researched book, chock-full of interviews with many of the legends Hooker played with in his seemingly short career (Pinetop Perkins, Big Moose Walker, A.C. Reed, B.B. King), each one giving detailed accounts of Hooker's somewhat eccentric behavior, his lifelong battle with TB, but most of all and importantly, his undeniable guitar prowess. Unfortunately, by the time Hooker began to get noticed for his amazing natural talent and hard work, TB overtook him, causing his untimely death. This is an excellent book, both for true Earl Hooker fans, and new ones alike. He had so much more to give the world of music, and had he lived, he most certainly would've attained the same success and legendary status as Stevie Ray Vaughan, Buddy Guy and Albert King, just to name a few. Essential reading!
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book About A Great Bluesman!
Review: Earl Hooker was one of the most influential guitarists that ever lived; not just in the blues, but in many different musical styles. His mastery of slide guitar and the wah-wah pedal (many times combining BOTH, thus creating a truly hair-raising sound) are legendary. But sadly, Earl Hooker is all but obscure now, owing to his early death (he died in 1970 at age 39 from tuberculosis), his uneven recording career (he only made 3 "true" albums; he recorded many obscure 45 rpm sides and guest appearances), and even his famous name association (he is half-cousin to the late boogie king John Lee Hooker) didn't seem to help him achieve real stardom; one he so greatly deserved! As all of the previous reviewers have pointed out, this is an extensively researched book, chock-full of interviews with many of the legends Hooker played with in his seemingly short career (Pinetop Perkins, Big Moose Walker, A.C. Reed, B.B. King), each one giving detailed accounts of Hooker's somewhat eccentric behavior, his lifelong battle with TB, but most of all and importantly, his undeniable guitar prowess. Unfortunately, by the time Hooker began to get noticed for his amazing natural talent and hard work, TB overtook him, causing his untimely death. This is an excellent book, both for true Earl Hooker fans, and new ones alike. He had so much more to give the world of music, and had he lived, he most certainly would've attained the same success and legendary status as Stevie Ray Vaughan, Buddy Guy and Albert King, just to name a few. Essential reading!
Rating:
Summary: Honoring a great bluesman....
Review: Since the 60s, Earl Hooker has been a mythical figure for me. Over the years I've heard his brilliant slide guitar solos here and there, mostly as an accompanist and eventually on his Blue Thumb vinyl release in 1970. And of course I had read all the superlatives that his musical cohorts liberally expressed in the blues press. But reading Danchin's exhaustively researched tribute has given a whole new life to those recordings. The detailed stories and thorough personnel listings associated with each of Hooker's scant few recording sessions add immeasurably to the enjoyment of my Hooker collection. Danchin does a remarkable job recreating a life using only second-hand info gleaned in the main from dozens of interviews with all those bluesmen and friends who inhabited Hooker's hectic world. My hope is that Danchin will apply his skills to telling the story of another deserving (and still LIVING) blues legend: Little Milton Campbell!
Rating:
Summary: If you like Earl Hooker, or Chicago Blues, you'll like this!
Review: The amazing part about this book is that the author was able to find out so much about Earl Hooker. The guy is a legendary guitar player. If you read interviews with his contemporaries like Buddy Guy or Otis Rush, they will attest to Hooker's greatness. Unfortunately Hooker died thirty years ago and is pretty obscure today. He didn't sing, so he survives on records largely as an accompanist to other people and on albums he recorded under his own name for a wide variety of mostly small and forgotten record labels. Many of his recordings are hard to find today. Surprisingly this author was able to find out about Earl Hooker's life and his world in great detail and in so doing rescue Earl Hooker from disappearing into history. In addition to being amazingly well researched this book is written by a fan of blues music. If you read this book you'll probably want to hear more of Earl Hooker, and that's probably the best compliment I could bestow on the author!
Rating:
Summary: earl hooker---blues master
Review: to come to the point--this is one of the best books ever written about a blues artist---it gives a great insight into what the life of this incredible guitarist was really like in the 1950's and 1960's...i laughed a whole lot---this book is very entertaining--earl was just about the greatest guitarist of his time and this book serves to remind those who love him of his greatness and to educate those who have no idea who he was-- if you never even heard of earl hooker, this is still a highly entertaining book about a very entertaining fellow-- the author did a great job of putting together dozens of interviews (done over a period of over 20 years)into a very nice book--its a big book too---lots of pages---some cool photos too- i plan on reading it many more times---two big thumbs up!!-
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