John Lee Hooker

For half a century, the much-recorded bluesman John Lee Hooker has cut music so primal,
it blurs into itself – his albums often seem interchangeable, his great signature songs
recorded to the nth. He defeats this tendency with The Best of Friends, a compilation on
which such admiring colleagues as Eric Clapton, Jimmie Vaughan and Bonnie Raitt help him
reprise the likes of "Boogie Chillen," "Boom Boom" and "I'm in the Mood," respecti... More >

With the millennium approaching as speedily as Hook's 140th birthday, his brain trust devises an easy yet effective celebration, mining the interchangeable output of his hundred-thirties for standout cameos and adding yet more special guests. And though he was warned not to overtax himself with these, you'd never know it from the Claptonized "Boogie Chillen" that sets him in his groove. Carlos Santana, Ry Cooder, Jimmie Vaughan, Los Lobos, and Bonnie Raitt also get him hard. (Grade: A-)