A1 	The Sky Is Crying	4:17
A2 	Hookin'		4:17
A3 	Is You Ever Seen A One-Eyed Woman Cry	3:42
A4 	You Got To Lose		5:42
A5 	Blue Guitar		3:51
B1 	Moanin' And Groanin'	4:47
B2 	Universal Rock		4:08
B3 	Look Over Yonder Wall	3:05
B4 	Don't Have To Worry		4:18
B5 	Come To Me Right Away, Baby		3:42

Bass Guitar – Chester E. "Gino" Skaggs
Drums – Roosevelt Shaw
Guitar – Earl Hooker, Paul Asbell
Harmonica – Jeffrey M. Carp
Piano, Organ – Johnny "Big Moose" Walker 
Vocals - Little Andrew "Blues Boy" Odum (A1, B1, B5)
Vocals - Johnny "Big Moose" Walker (A3, B3)
Vocals - Earl Hooker (A4, B4)

The year 1969 was an important one in Earl Hooker's career. He again teamed up with Junior Wells and they performed at higher-paying college dates and concerts, including Chicago's Kinetic Playground. This pairing did not last long and in May 1969, and after assembling new players, Hooker recorded material that was later released as Funk. Last of the Late Great Earl Hooker. Also in May, after being recommended by Ike Turner (with whom he first toured in 1952), he went to Los Angeles to record the album Sweet Black Angel for Blue Thumb Records with arrangements and piano by Turner. It included Hooker's interpretations of several blues standards, such as "Sweet Home Chicago" (with Hooker on vocal), "Drivin' Wheel", "Cross Cut Saw", "Catfish Blues", and the title track. While in Los Angeles, Hooker visited the clubs and sat in with Albert Collins at the Ash Grove several times and jammed with others, including Jimi Hendrix

After the Blue Thumb recording session, Earl Hooker and his band backed his cousin John Lee Hooker on a series of club dates in California; afterwards John Lee used them for his Bluesway Records recording session. The resulting album, John Lee Hooker Featuring Earl Hooker – If You Miss 'Im ... I Got 'Im, was Earl Hooker's introduction to the Bluesway label, an ABC subsidiary and home to B.B. King. This led to recording six more Earl Hooker-involved albums for Bluesway in 1969: Earl Hooker's Don't Have to Worry and albums by Andrew Odom, Johnny "Big Moose" Walker, Charles Brown, Jimmy Witherspoon, and Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry.

Hooker's Don't Have to Worry included vocal performances by Walker, Odom, and Hooker as well as instrumental selections. The session had a "coherence and consistency" that help make the album another part of Hooker's "finest musical legacy".[ Touring with his band in California took Hooker to the San Francisco Bay area in July 1969, where he played club and college dates as well as rock venues, such as The Matrix and the Fillmore West. In Berkeley, he and his band, billed as "Earl Hooker and His Chicago Blues Band", performed at Mandrake's, a local club, for two weeks as he recorded a second album for Arhoolie. Titled Hooker and Steve, the album was recorded with Louis Myers on harmonica, blues keyboard player Steve Miller, Geno Skaggs on bass, and Bobby Robinson on drums. Hooker shared the vocals with Miller and Skaggs. ---bluesway.gr

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1. Will My Man Be Home Tonight   (Vocals – Lillian Offitt)
2. Oh Mama    (Vocals – Lillian Offitt)
3. Calling All Blues 	
4. Swear To Tell The Truth    (Vocals – Harold Tidwell)
5. Galloping Horses A Lazy Mule 	
6. Blues In D Natural 	
7. Universal Rock 	
8. Apache War Dance 	
9. Rocking With The KId 	
10. Rockin' Wild 	
11. This Little Voice Of Mine    (Vocals – A.C. Reed)
12. Blue Guitar 	
13. How Long Can This Go On 	
14. These Cottin Pickin' Blues 	
15. That Man 	
16. Win The Dance 	
17. Crying Blues 	
18. The Bright Sound 	
19. Off the Hook 	
20. Lotta Loving    (Vocals – A.C. Reed)
21. The Leading Brand

Earl Hooker - Composer, Guitar, Primary Artist
Willie Dixon - Bass 

The slide guitar wizard's immaculate fretwork was never captured more imaginatively than during his early-'60s stay with Mel London's Age/Chief labels. 21 fascinating tracks from that period include Hooker's savage instrumentals "Blue Guitar," "Off the Hook," "The Leading Brand," "Blues in D Natural," and "How Long Can This Go On," along with tracks by A.C. Reed, Lillian Offitt, and Harold Tidwell that cast Hooker as a standout sideman. ---Bill Dahl, AllMusic Review

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A1 	Two Bugs In A Rug 	
A2 	Hold On... I'm Coming 	
A3 	Off The Hook 	
A4 	Dust My Broom 	
A5 	Hot And Heavy 	
A6 	The Screwdriver 	
B1 	Bertha 	
B2 	The Foxtrot 	
B3 	End Of The Blues 	
B4 	Walking The Floor 	
B5 	Hooker Special 	
B6 	Something You Ate

Earl Hooker - Primary Artist

This rare circa-1967 album has what you'd expect from a vintage Earl Hooker LP: blues instrumentals with unfailingly stinging guitar, a relaxed groove, and soul-tinged arrangements bolstered by solid organ. If it's mighty reliable in what it delivers, it also has to be said that there aren't many surprises, the tracks coming close to very high-class blues background music in some senses. As that limited genre goes, however, this is at the top of that class, Hooker throwing in enough energetic flourishes, swoops, and musical equivalents of exclamation points to not just keep things interesting, but also keep a smile on your face. A few familiar blues and soul tunes are covered here, including "Dust My Broom," "Hold On, I'm Coming," and "Something You Got," the last of these unappetizingly retitled "Something You Ate." But for the most part the program is original, including one number, "Bertha," that seems to look toward Santo & Johnny's sleepy slide guitar workouts for inspiration. --- Richie Unterberger, AllMusic Review

Earl Hooker was one of these artists taken from us way too soon. In his 41 years he left music that influenced the likes of B.B. King, Guitar Slim, Johnny “Guitar” Watson, Albert Collins, Little Milton, Buddy Guy, Sue Foley, Otis Rush, and Louis Myers. Hooker began to play when he was about ten years old. Playing street corners in Chicago in the 1940s, he formed a friendship with Robert Nighthawk, from whom he adopted his style of slide play wherein he used a light touch, and a short steel slide that allowed him to switch from slide to fretted work more easily. He also was not adverse to incorporating electronic effects into his rig, and he did so long before a majority of players moved in that direction.

What made Hooker so interesting, besides his incredible technique, was that he could play soul, country, R&B, and of course, blues. The Genius of Earl Hooker, issued by Cuca in 1967, is a collection of instrumentals that Hooker had recorded between 1964 and 1967. As an album, this is not Hooker’s finest moment by any stretch. The importance of the music here is the window it provides us into Hooker’s approach to various songs, some very well known, and the way in which he chooses to deliver them. Inevitably, comparisons are made between this album, and say, Let’s Hide Away and Dance Away with Freddy King. In a lot of ways, that is like comparing apples and oranges. Different styles, different approaches to the fretboard, different tone, and different visions.

The Genius of Earl Hooker has some really fine guitar moments including his unique take on Sam and Dave’s “Hold On I’m Coming,” and “Off The Hook.” The vocal quality of guitar on “Bertha” is haunting. The fretwork on “End of The Blues” is remarkable, and “Walking To The Floor” still puts a big smile on our faces. “Something You Ate” features picking that is beautifully fluid. Hooker’s guitar tone is superb throughout.

If you haven’t listened to this album, give it a go. As a historical marker, and a snapshot of Hooker, it is invaluable. --- chicagoblues.com

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1. Will My Man Be Home Tonight
2. Oh Mama
3. Calling All Blues
4. Swear to Tell the Truth
5. Galloping Horses a Lazy Mule
6. Blues in D Natural [Instrumental]
7. Universal Rock [Instrumental]
8. Apache War Dance
9. Rockin' With Kid [Instrumental]
10. Rockin Wild [Instrumental]
11. This Little Voice
12. I Wanna Be Free
13. That Ain't Right
14. Blue Guitar [Instrumental]
15. How Long Can This Go On? [Instrumental]
16. Nothing But Good [Instrumental]
17. These Cotton Pickin' Blues [Instrumental]
18. Off the Hook [Instrumental]
19. That Man
20. The Bright Sound [Instrumental]
21. Win the Dance
22. You'd Better Be Sure
23. Crying Blues
24. I Stay Mad
25. Lotta Lovin'
26. The Leading Brand [Instrumental]
27. Want You to Rock Me
28. Little by Little
29. Don't You Ever Forget It

Earl Hooker – Guitar
Ricky Allen - Vocals
Julien Beasley - 	Sax (Alto)
Fred Below  - Drums
Reggie Boyd - Guitar
Jackie Brenston - Sax (Baritone), Vocals
Little Ray Charles - Organ, Piano
Earlettes - Vocals
Jarrett Gibson - Sax (Tenor)
Donald Hankins - Sax (Baritone)
Tall Paul Hankins - Piano
Earnest Johnson - Bass
Sonny Lantz - Organ
Lafayette Leake - Piano
Bob Little - Drums
Jack Myers - Bass
Lillian Offitt - Vocals
Pinetop Perkins - Piano
A.C. Reed - Sax (Tenor), Vocals
Billy Stepney - Drums
Frank Swan - Drums
Harold Tidwell - Drums
Johnny "Big Moose" Walker - Organ, Piano
Junior Wells - Harmonica, Vocals

Widespread respect for Earl Hooker, one of the unsung giants of the blues, is long overdue, and his rather limited available discography belies a great original talent. P-Vine Japan has attempted to put this right with Blues Guitar: The Chief and Age Sessions 1959-1963, an intelligent and authoritative collection of Hooker's early-'60s heyday, containing instrumental classics such as "Blue Guitar" and "Blues in D Natural." Both sound quality and packaging supersede all previous reissues of this work and, as such, this release becomes perhaps the cornerstone of any Earl Hooker collection. --- Thomas Ward, allmusic.com

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1 Love Me 	2:07 	
2 Come On In This House 	2:21 	
3 Two Headed Woman 	2:38 	
4 Lovey Dovey Lovey One 	2:11 	
5 I Could Cry 	2:50 	
6 Cha Cha Cha In Blue 	2:21 	
7 You Don't Care 	2:19 	
8 Prison Bars All Around Me 	2:28 	
9 Calling All Blues 	2:32 	
10 Galloping Horses A Lazy Mule 	2:33 	
11 Blues In D Natural 	2:14 	
12 Messin' With The Kid 	2:15 	
13 You Sure Look Good To Me 	2:25 	
14 Universal Rock 	2:31 	
15 Rockin' With The Kid 	2:07 	
16 Little By Little 	2:32 	
17 These Cotton Pickin' Blues 	2:44 	
18 Blue Guitar 	2:44 	
19 I'm A Stranger 	2:40 	
20 I Need Me A Car 	2:23 	

Musicians:
E. Hooker – guitar
Junior Wells – harmonica, vocals
L.Gibson, S. Johnson – guitar
E.Johnson,  J.Myers, W.Dixon – bass
J. Beasley  - alto sax
D. Hankins, J. Brenston – baritone sax
A. C. Reed, J. Gibson – tenor sax
J. Walker, 'Big Moose' Walker – organ
"Big Moose" Walker, L. Leake, O. Spann, T. P. Hankins – piano
B. Little, C. Jones, E. Lounge, F. Below, H. Tidwell – drums
M. London, W. Dixon - vocals

If there was a more immaculate slide guitarist residing in Chicago during the 1950s and '60s than Earl Hooker, his name has yet to surface. Boasting a fretboard touch so smooth and clean that every note rang as clear and precise as a bell, Hooker was an endlessly inventive axeman who would likely have been a star had his modest vocal abilities matched his instrumental prowess and had he not been dogged by tuberculosis (it killed him at age 41). Born in the Mississippi Delta, Hooker arrived in Chicago as a child. There he was influenced by another slide wizard, veteran Robert Nighthawk. But Hooker never remained still for long. He ran away from home at age 13, journeying to Mississippi. After another stint in Chicago, he rambled back to the Delta again, playing with Ike Turner and Sonny Boy Williamson. Hooker made his first recordings in 1952 and 1953 for Rockin', King, and Sun. At the latter, he recorded some terrific sides with pianist Pinetop Perkins (Sam Phillips inexplicably sat on Hooker's blazing rendition of "The Hucklebuck").

Back in Chicago again, Hooker's dazzling dexterity was intermittently showcased on singles for Argo, C.J., and Bea & Baby during the mid- to late '50s before he joined forces with producer Mel London (owner of the Chief and Age logos) in 1959. For the next four years, he recorded both as sideman and leader for the producer, backing Junior Wells, Lillian Offitt, Ricky Allen, and A.C. Reed and cutting his own sizzling instrumentals ("Blue Guitar," "Blues in D-Natural"). He also contributed pungent slide work to Muddy Waters' Chess waxing "You Shook Me." Opportunities to record grew sparse after Age folded; Hooker made some tantalizing sides for Sauk City, WI's Cuca Records from 1964 to 1968 (several featuring steel guitar virtuoso Freddie Roulette).

Hooker's amazing prowess (he even managed to make the dreaded wah-wah pedal a viable blues tool) finally drew increased attention during the late '60s. He cut LPs for Arhoolie, ABC-BluesWay, and Blue Thumb that didn't equal what he'd done at Age, but they did serve to introduce Hooker to an audience outside Chicago and wherever his frequent travels deposited him. But tuberculosis halted his wandering ways permanently in 1970. ---Bill Dahl, allmusic.com

Junior Wells (December 9, 1934 - January 15, 1998), born Amos Blakemore, was a blues vocalist and harmonica player based in Chicago who was famous for playing with Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Magic Sam, Lonnie Brooks, The Rolling Stones and Van Morrison.

He was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and raised in Arkansas. Wells moved to Chicago in 1948 and first made his mark at age 18 playing in Muddy Waters’ band. He later worked with Buddy Guy in the 1960s and recorded for Delmark Records. His most memorable songs are “Messin’ With the Kid” and “Little by Little,” and his best-known album, 1965’s Hoodoo Man Blues, which evokes the smoky atmosphere of the era’s Westside Chicago blues bars.

Wells made an appearance in the 1998 movie Blues Brothers 2000, the sequel to The Blues Brothers. The movie was released less than a month after his death. On his passing in 1998, Junior Wells was interred in the Oak Woods Cemetery, Chicago. ---last.fm

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01. Swear To Tell The Truth 
02. You Took All My Love 
03. All Your Love 
04. Everything Gonna Be Alright 
05. Frosty 
06. The Misfit (Got To Keep Movin') 
07. Earl Hooker Blues 		play
08. Reconsider Baby 		play
09. Hot And Heavy 
10. She's Fine 
11. Dynamite 
12. Hello Baby 
13. Dust My Broom 

Drums – Bobby Little 
Guitar – Earl Hooker
Guitar [Steel] – Fred Roulette
Saxophone [Alt] – A.C. Reed 
Saxophone [Tenor] – Bobby Fields 
Vocals – A.C. Reed, Earl Hooker, Frank "Crying Shame" Clark, Little Tommy, Muddy Waters Jr.

1964-1967 output by the guitarist that was largely done for the tiny Cuca logo of Sauk City, WI. The normally tight-lipped Hooker proves that he could sing on this romping version of "Swear to Tell the Truth," while A.C. Reed, Little Tommy, Frank Clark, and Muddy Waters, Jr. help out behind the mike elsewhere. A pair of live cuts from 1968 find Hooker stretching out in amazing fashion. --Bill Dahl, allmusic.com

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A1. Wa-Wa Blues - part 1
A2. Wa-Wa Blues - part 2             play
A3. Soul Cookin'
A4. Sweet Home Chicago #

B1. Hoker Cooker
B2. Huckle Bug
B3. The Real Blues
B4. Ball Game On A Rainy Day *        play

Rec. Chicago May 5, 1969; 

Personnel:
Earl Hooker, g, # voc; 
Jeff  Karp, hca, * voc; poss. 
Boots Hamilton, org; 
Paul Asbell, g; 
Gino Skaggs, b; 
Roosevelt Shaw, dr

Earl Hooker (January 15, 1929 – April 21, 1970) was a Chicago blues guitarist. Hooker rarely sang and in a genre where the stars were vocalists or vocalists/instrumentalists, his commercial success was limited. However, he "was undeniably a virtuoso among guitar players" and has been acknowledged by many of his peers. As B.B. King commented: "to me he is the best of modern guitarists. Period. With the slide he was the best. It was nobody else like him, he was just one of a kind". Unlike his contemporaries Elmore James and Muddy Waters, Earl Hooker used standard tuning on his guitar for slide playing. He also used a short steel slide. This allowed him to switch between slide and fretted playing during a song with greater ease. Part of his slide sound has been attributed to his light touch, a technique he learned from Robert Nighthawk. "Instead of using full-chord glissando effects, he preferred the more subtle single-note runs inherited from others who played slide in standard tuning, [such as] Tampa Red, Houston Stackhouse, and his mentor Robert Nighthawk." In addition to his mastery of slide guitar, Hooker was also a highly developed standard-guitar soloist and rhythm player. At a time when many blues guitarists were emulating B.B. King, Hooker maintained his own course. Although he was a bluesman at heart, Hooker was adept at several musical styles, which he incorporated into his playing as it suited him. Depending on his mood and audience reaction, a Hooker performance could include blues, boogie-woogie, R&B/soul, be-bop, pop, and even a country & western favorite.

Earl Hooker was a flamboyant showman in the style of T-Bone Walker and predated Guitar Slim and Johnny "Guitar" Watson. He wore flashy clothes and would pick the guitar with his teeth or his feet or play it behind his neck or between his legs. He also played a double neck guitar, at first a six-string guitar and four-string bass combination and later a twelve- and six-string guitar combination. After his 1967 tuberculosis attack left him in a weakened state, he sometimes played while seated and using a lighter single-neck guitar.

In a genre that typically shunned gadgetry, Earl Hooker was an exception. He experimented with amplification and used echo and tape delay, including "double-tracking his playing during a song, [so] he could pick simultaneously two solos in harmony". In 1968, he began using a wah-wah pedal to add a vocal-like quality to some of his solos.

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01. Two Bugs And A Roach - 4:21 
02. Wah Wah Blues - 4:38 
03. You Don t Love Me - 5:39 
04. Earl Hooker Blues - 5:16 
05. Anna Lee - 6:32 
06. Off The Hook - 3:56 
07. Love Ain t A Play Thing - 5:00 
08. You Don t Want Me - 5:18 
09. The Hook - 5:02 
10. New Sweet Black Angel - 5:18 
11. I m Going Down The Line - 2:23 
12. Sweet Black Angel - 3:14 
13. Guitar Rag - 3:01 
14. Earl s Boogie Woogie - 2:38

Personnel: 
Earl Hooker (vocals, guitar); 
Andrew Odom (vocals, guitar); 
Gino Skaggs (vocals); 
Louis Myers, Carey Bell (harmonica); 
Pinetop Perkins (piano); 
Levi Warren, W. Williams (drums).

Earl Hooker's Two Bugs and a Roach is a varied lot, with vocals from Hooker, Andrew Odom, and Carey Bell in between the instrumentals, all cut in 1968. All in all, it's one of the must-haves in this artist's very small discography -- a nice representative sample from Chicago's unsung master of the electric guitar, including the title track, "Anna Lee," and the atmospheric instrumental, "Off the Hook." [For a compact disc reissue, Arhoolie added some tracks to the original lineup, including two tracks from stray sessions in late 1968 and July, 1969, along with four very early sides probably recorded in Memphis in the company of Pinetop Perkins, Willie Nix, and an unknown bass player. Of these, "Guitar Rag" is the least together, hampered by a bass player who can't find the changes, but "I'm Going Down the Line" and "Earl's Boogie Woogie" are both top-notch uptempo boogies full of fleet fingered soloing. "Sweet Black Angel" was the A-side of a stray single from the early '50s and appears to be from another session, although it's an excellent example of Hooker playing in the Robert Night Hawk style.] ---Cub Koda, Rovi

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