Jane Lee Hooker - No B! album review

Blues with attitude in a set of super-cool covers.

Jane Lee Hooker No B! album cover

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Jane Lee Hooker are the kind of girl-gang that scared the squares and bewitched the rockers in those 50s teen movies. Comprising Dana ‘Danger’ Athens (vocals), Melissa ‘Cool Whip’ Houston (drums), Tracy ‘Hightop’ (guitar), Tina ‘T-Bone’ Gorin (guitar) and Hail Mary Z (bass), they’ve put a rocket under a handful of blues standards and given them a new lease of life.

With all the swagger in the world, Athens injects a garage-punk rawness to Muddy Waters’ Mannish Boy, Johnny Winter’s Mean Town Blues and Albert King’s The Hunter, while the sole original track here, In The Valley, finds them dancing with the devil and suggesting that there may be more original tunes from them in the future.

It’s fiery, just the right level of grubby, and a righteous kick in the shins for those overly respectful bores who usually handle these songs with kid gloves.

Emma has been writing about music for 25 years, and is a regular contributor to Classic Rock, Metal Hammer, Prog and Louder. During that time her words have also appeared in publications including Kerrang!, Melody Maker, Select, The Blues Magazine and many more. She is also a professional pedant and grammar nerd and has worked as a copy editor on everything from film titles through to high-end property magazines. In her spare time, when not at gigs, you’ll find her at her local stables hanging out with a bunch of extremely characterful horses.