Hooker 'N Heat

"I dig this kid's harmonica, man. I don't know how he follow me, but he do." That's what John Lee Hooker says about Canned Heat's Alan "Blind Owl" Wilson in the studio chatter captured on this double-length album. To a bunch of blueshounds like Canned Heat, there could have been no higher praise. Canned Heat were among the most accomplished blues-rock bands of the '60s and '70s, largely because of their natural feeling for the blues, which is amply displayed on this collaboration with Hooker. Instead of trying to squeeze him into their sound or impose themselves upon his, Canned Heat wisely give the blues legend miles of room. The band don't even play on the first half of the album, letting Hooker's mournful moan and stormy guitar stand on their own. When the Heat is finally turned on, they sound like they've been banging out the blues-boogie beat behind Hooker their whole lives. For his part, Hooker sounds uncommonly energized fronting the band on tunes like "Let's Make It" and "Peavine." For this moment in time, music became magical enough to make the generation gap disappear.