The Real Folk Blues is an album by blues musician John Lee Hooker that was recorded in Chicago in 1966 and released by the Chess label. Additional tracks from the sessions were released as More Real Folk Blues: The Missing Album in 1991.
John Lee Hooker was a blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter. He was the son of a sharecropper and rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues. Hooker’s blues style also included talking blues and early North Mississippi Hill country blues. He created his own rhythm boogie style which was distinct from the 1930s–1940s piano boogie-woogie. In Rolling Stones’ list of 100 greatest guitarists, Hooker was ranked 35th.
Boogie Chillen, Crawling King Snake, Dimples, Boom Boom, and One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer is some of his best-known songs. Many of his albums were chart ranking. Hooker also earned a Grammy for the song “I’m In The Mood” and Chill Out (for the album). He also won a Grammy for Don’t Look Back, which went on to earn him a double-Grammy win for Best Traditional Blues Recording and Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals with Van Morrison.
Hooker was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991. In 1983 he was awarded the National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2000 John Lee Hooker was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Hooker was also inducted into the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame and in 2007, John Lee Hooker was voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame.
Photo was taken at the Deep Ellum music scene mural in Dallas, Texas by Terry Shuck
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