Earl Hooker : Two Bugs And A Roach
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"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)."
I have to say i really like AMG bios, especially their introductions, when they are well made. Earl Hooker was a specialist for killer instrumentals. Recorded for Arhoolie in 1968-69, this song features funky beats and a great repartee between Earl and Andrew 'B.B. Jr.' Odom. And of course, that bug which eventually killed him.
Earl Hooker played not only blues, but also country (as you'll see in this video), jazz and rock. He sure was an influence for Henrix, who called him the "master of the wah-wah pedal".
