Photos

This is John Lee Hooker, Jr. - son of the great bluesman John Lee Hooker.

So often nowadays we are seeing the children and even grandchildren of great musicians of earlier times - many times they are just as or even more successful with their own careers as their parents. Bonnie Raitt, Julian Lennon, Jakob Dylan are some of the more prominent, I think Bonnie is probably the most successful of the three, but they all had big shoes to fill.

I don't know if this guy will be as successful as his father, somehow I doubt it. His style is much different, of course - I didn't see him touch a guitar and he certainly never sat down. He is quite a flamboyant entertainer an very emotive singer and dancer. He did do "Dimples", one of his father's greatest hits, or at least most covered songs.

It would have to be really hard to step onto the stage with that name, though. I don't know what I expected - I had never seen him perform before, in fact, I didn't know he existed (some blues aficionado, huh?).

I think he would have been better backed by one of those "big band" sort of groups, lots of horns and spotlight right on him. His band was good, they certainly played well and are likely excellent entertainers in their own rights, but this guy takes up the whole stage.

He was good, but he wasn't his father, which somehow was a bit disappointing to me.

I still got some good shots, though. I was able to get fairly close to most of the performances at the Beale St. Music Festival. Like Elvis Costello did in an earlier performance, John Lee mugged for all the cameras pointing at him. I liked his hat, gold lined teeth and shiny vest - he is a great subject for Monday Blues.

Hope you all have a great week!