Anyway, Earl Hooker was the Headhunter king in Chicago while he was alive and gigging. He could and would, play damn near anything in his sets from straight up Hillbilly to tasteful Jazz tunes. But his main forte was the blues. The blues, the whole blues and nothin' but the blues. And at this he could not be beat.

Born Earl Zebedee Hooker in Clarksdale, Miss. in 1930 (an exact date unknown, I came across 5! different days of birth in 1930 and so decided to skip it) Earl was in case you're wondering, a first cousin to John Lee Hooker. Any similarities between the two beyond that are pure coincidence. EH moved with his family to Chicago during the great exodus out of the Miss. Delta during the depression. As many blues singers have noted though, they had no idea the country was even IN a depression until they left the delta. That's how bad things were down there!

Being raised on Blues, Earl learned directly from seeing and hearing such first generation Chicago greats as Tampa Red, Big Bill Broonzy & Robert Nighthawk whose fluid, smooth and complex slide playing took Earl by storm, having an enormous influence on him. Earls mastery of the slide guitar was such that he was asked by Muddy Waters himself to play slide on Muddy's " You Shook Me," a tune later mangled by Led Zeppelin on their first LP. This was really quite the compliment as Muddy was one of the best slide guitar players EVER when he felt like it, though Muddy played less and less guitar as his fame and popularity rose from the early 50's into the 60's.

Returning back down south in the early 50's Earl worked with Ike Turner's Kings Of Rhythm Band abd cut some sides for Sun Records. One such side being an over the top take on "Steel Guitar Rag" showing Earl's affinity for country and western to great effect. With his appropriately named "Roadmasters" band, Earl nicknamed "Zeb" by his friends, spent the better part of the decade constantly touring only recording sporadically for many one off singles of his own.

The early part of the 60's saw Earl back in Chicago for the time being cutting his own chiefly instrumental singles such as an ethereal take on Joe Liggins 1952 R&B hit "Tanya" (an exotic sounding cut in the vein of "Harlem Nocturne") and "Blue Guitar," "Universal Rock," and others. This busy point in his life also found him gigging with & doing studio work with Jr. Wells, Muddy Waters, A.C. Reed & blues chanteuse Lillian Offitt. Unfortunately, Earl had contracted tuberculosis at early age and this sidelined him several times as he was building up momentum in his professional carrer and personal life.