Customer Reviews

Travelin

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When I started to get interested in music in the middle 1960s, this was one of the Albums everyone who was serious was supposed to have. Jazz musicians and Blues lovers alike would take me aside and tell me to listen seriously when they played these sides for me because this was education.

Hooker benefited in these sides from being on Vee Jay records, a fine, sadly defunct, black owned label that provided him quality production and recording and presentation. You have the feeling that compared with a lot of his other recording companies, Vee Jay treated Johnnie Lee as a serious artist, worthy of good sound, enough time in the studio to get the take right, and tasteful accompaniment usually just drums and bass.

Here we have Hooker recorded in a special time in his career right in between the time that RB labels were milking him for a different recording every month, sometimes under different names, and the later period when the folk and the folk blues revivals got him into do one recording it seemed every week.

In 1960 when these sides were cut Hooker still had an audience in the Black base blues community and was also known to a lot of Jazz lovers as well. He's not jiving or being a charicature of himself as on some of his last CDs, sad to say.

Johnnie had "something in him that's got to come out." It's so far inside that it evades even the heart and themind. It's deep down in our bones, fear of loneliness, isolation, poverty, and defeat, love hunger in the brick and concrete squalor of the Black ghettos that were about to explode in revolt.

There is such a feeling of despair here in bluer songs that blend together: "No Shoes," "Whiskey and Women," "Canal Street," "I'm a stranger."

Wow, just typing these titles today 40 years after the first time I heard them still moves me, still make me wonder why I don't keep this permanently on the CD player


"No food on my table
no shoes on my feet
my children crying for bread
they ain't Got nothing to eat"

"Night life night life,
it ain't No good for me.
If it weren't for whiskey and women and night life,
I'd have a happy life."

Plain simple words, but delivered by John Lee Hooker deep from inside him, plunging out with the music, across all the years, he emerges as such a poet, such a poet!

.

The words are still ringing in my ears. Let them ring in yours.

Somehow I hadn't heard of this CD. I saw it here on Amazon and downloaded it. As soon as I played it, I was stunned that this isn't a better known John Lee Hooker release. It's already on the top of my rotation and will stay there for some time. Great stuff!

Even better is that Amazon's got this as a five dollar special this month (October 2009). Great way to get the word out about this fantastic blues album. Tell all your blues loving friends.

This CD was recorded in 1960. The masterization is excellent. If you like Hooker, do not miss this one for your collection.

This is JLH with some of his best stuff. Some of it is deep, heavy, slow and dark like in "Canal Street Blues" and "Whiskey and Women". Some is the brawling, bluesband stuff Like boom Boom Boom gonna shootya right down." I have owned these songs since the vinyl days of my high school and college day in the 60's and have worn out the grooves. It's great John Lee Hooker with soul!

There's a re-recording of the classic "Whiskey and Wimmin" on this album, recorded in the '60s. While there aren't any other "hits," this is some mighty fine John Lee Hooker listening music. The audio quality, the studio support, the mixing -- everything is just awesome. I own lot of John Lee's music, from the four-CD box set "Hook" to the most obscure, and I can definitely say this is THE VERY BEST SOUNDING recording of all.

John Lee Hooker was famous for pretty much recording any time, any place, with a variety of names -- and his legacy is a mixed bag of some great music, but some of it with rather poor audio quality. Not so with Travelin'. Every track here is just sweet, even the "minor" tunes. It is simply a joy to listen to this CD for the clarity of John Lee's voice, the great instrumental backing, the overall awesome audio quality.

There's nothing here that you can't find probably find elsewhere on some compilation, but I give this complete recording FIVE stars and highly recommend it solely for the superb audio quality. If you wanna hear John Lee like he should have ALWAYS been recorded, then check out Travelin'. It's a minor classic, but sound-wise it is pure gold and honey to the ears.

John Lee Hooker/ Travelin' (Vee Jay): If there is anyone out there looking to make a movie about a man having a hard time with women and the road...this would make the perfect soundtrack for you. There are 12 cuts to the original album but it was still a short one as none of those songs was longer than two minutes and thirty-seven seconds, but what it might have been missing in length it made up for in content. The several bonus tracks added to this version of the album is greatly appreciated as they fit well into the theme. Yes, I am a fan of JLH. This is another great CD. Highly Recommended.