A brief, ten-song set of sides originally recorded by
Bernie Besman
at
United Sound Studios
in Detroit between 1948 and 1952 and leased to
Modern Records
in Los Angeles (
Besman
did release some of them on his own
Sensation Records
imprint), this is a prototypical sequence of
John Lee Hooker
being, well,
, churning out loose-limbed
blues boogies
on solo electric guitar. Included are
"Boogie Chillen',"
"Hobo Blues,"
"Crawling King Snake,"
"Huckle Up Baby,"
"House Rent Boogie,"
and
"I'm in the Mood,"
which in
Hooker
's world could almost pass for
pop
. Since
never significantly altered his style during his long career, these first recordings set the stage for all that came after, and he arguably never sounded fresher or better. It's kind of brief, though. ~ Steve Leggett