|
contents | jazz | |||||||||||||
| John Lee Hooker Jr. Honored with W.C. Handy Award for “Best New Artist Debut” After struggling through years of extreme hardship and nearly losing himself to the streets, the remarkable John Lee Hooker Jr., son of the late great Blues legend overcame adversity to begin what may seem to many a rapid emergence into the blues spotlight. Although John Lee Hooker Jr. began his career many years ago singing and touring with his father, he only recently came into his own legacy with his debut release of “Blues With a Vengeance” on Kent Records which has been awarded this year’s distinguished W.C. Handy for “Best New Artist Debut”. The W.C. Handy Awards, often referred to as the “Blues Grammys”, are given out annually by The Blues Foundation in Memphis, TN. Universally recognized as the highest honor given to Blues artists, the Handy Awards brings together Blues performers, industry representatives, and fans from all over the world to celebrate the best in Blues recordings and performances from the previous year. Mr. Hooker, Jr. is proud to be among this year’s winners which include some of the biggest names in music including B.B. King, Mavis Staples, Charlie Musselwhite, Robert Randolph, and Pinetop Perkins (a legendary peer of his father). The accomplishments and praise heaped upon John Lee Hooker, Jr.’s debut CD “Blues With a Vengeance” doesn’t stop with the most recent Handy Award. The CD also garnered a Grammy nomination in the “Traditional Blues Album” category and won a California Music Award (also known as a Bammy) as “Outstanding Blues Album of the Year”. The critics and industry insiders aren’t the only ones taking notice of the talent of John Lee Hooker, Jr. “Blues With A Vengeance” recently exploded onto the iTunes charts with “Boom Boom” and “One Bourbon, One Scotch, and One Beer” respectively reaching the number one and number two spots on the Blues Chart. Additionally, the CD was not only the sole Blues CD in the Top 100 at the time, it climbed to #57 on the Mainstream Album chart, making it one of the highest ranking blues records in iTunes history within that mainstream field. John Lee Hooker, Jr. is currently continuing his worldwide tour in support of “Blues With a Vengeance” with dates along the West Coast and in Europe this summer. write your comments about the article :: © 2005 Jazz News :: home page |