Hooker 'n' Heat

This 1971 collaboration between primal one-part-delta / one-part-detroit singer-guitarist John Lee Hooker and Southern California blues revivalists Canned Heat works in large part because all parties involved are a little off.

Hooker, the most unsystematic of the major bluesmen of his generation, isn't a good fit for disciplined players; rather, he requires sidemen who play by feel. In harp player-guitarist Alan Wilson, the "Crawling King Snake" found a particularly sympathetic foil; sadly, Wilson died shortly after these sessions were completed.

Roughly divided into spare, gritty delta exercises and full-on boogie stomps featuring the full band, 'Hooker 'n' Heat' is surely one of Canned Heat's crowning moments, which isn't saying that much. But that it stands as a milestone in Hooker's oeuvre is quite a statement indeed.