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Just something about this one that makes me want to get a good stiff drink and drift away for a bit. But then I got to the song 'My Dream.' Blew me away. This is a decent JLH disc. Great music, which is no surprise.
And if you dig this, you've got to listen to the soundtrack from The Hot Spot. The first two cuts on this cd are spectacular. Very film noir, and Hooker's soundtrack kills. One of my favorite movies, Don Johnson, Virginia Madsen, Jennifer Connelly, and Charles Martin Smith. The duet with Bonnie Raitt won them a Grammy. This was my first, and still one of my most prized blues cd's.
Well, sometime around the year 2000, Santana's own sales had become pretty meager and rather irrelevant in the record business. The music on "The Healer" is great. That resulted in his "Supernatural" cd, a huge multi-million seller, one of the biggest sellers of the last decade. The rest of the cd is very, very good.
With a new foundation, John Lee went on to make 5 or 6 strong selling albums. So, guess what - he used the same collaboration idea that he used to rescue John Lee. When this album was released I heard that Carlos Santana and Bonnie Raitt rescued a no-longer-sought-after John Lee by making one of the first "collaboration" projects. Hooker was supposedly pretty down-and-out. The title song, "The Healer" is by itself worth the price of admission and earns my 5 stars for this cd, even before listening to another cut. It's one of those rare songs I can listen to at any time, love it and never tire of it.
He was putting out very good cd's every year which went nowhere on the charts. More than worth having. The other cuts also stand tall. Kharma. On this song Carlos Santana proves his frequent assertion that all of the best modern music is derived from the blues. But, "The Healer" is just a classic song that trancends genres. But, having him collaborate with well-known younger artists (including Carlos and Bonnie) gave him a new twist to his music and a much broader audience.
The Hooker-Raitt song smolders - a singnature Raitt performance. Simultaneously intense and totally relaxed. He topped the blues charts for nearly a decade after this came out. Carlos places John Lee into a stone cold Latin context and the two of them come out with, of course, amazing Latin Blues.
I had to buy another for myself it is so good. Very bluesy, awesome listening. A real keeper for your music collection. Soulful. My husband borrowed my original 2 years ago and never returned it.
Somehow he manages to perform even the saddest lyrics in the way that it would sound energetic rather than depressing, possibly because of his constant sense of rhythm (on other CDs, you can hear him stomp his foot in many, maybe most, songs he performs, especially in earlier work). If you are looking for pure John Lee, though, this isn't your CD. And as is true with most Hooker recordings, this is one is very energetic. This CD is very smooth, romantic, laid-back, classy, and has very good sound quality.
I am actually listening to this CD right now. The Healer marked re-birth of John Lee's activity in modern blues. Hooker's blues never really sound sad. It is awesome.
I think this is a fine addition to your collection if you like either blues or rock or both. He is a class act and aged like fine wine. This is the modern-age John Lee Hooker at his best. In this CD, pretty much every song, with the exception of a couple, is a collaboration with someone, whether it's Carlos Santana, Bonnie Raitt, Robert Cray, Los Lobos, George Thorogood, or Charlie Musselwhite.
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