A late-period work from blues legend John Lee Hooker has recently been reissued on CD and vinyl.

1992's Boom Boom, part of a late-career resurgence for the Detroit-forged guitarist, was re-pressed on CD last week with two bonus tracks first released on a reissue of the album by Shout! Factory in 2007. (The slightly re-designed booklet also retains the track-by-track credits for each song, plus an essay by writer Jas Obrecht.) BMG, the label behind this release, has also gone back to the original analogue master tapes to cut a new lacquer for the first wide release of the original 10-track album on vinyl.

Hooker, by this time, was well regarded as a bluesman, putting his own spin on the amplified Chicago blues style with simple, groove-forward songcraft. He'd recorded countless sessions (released on labels like Modern, Chess and Vee-Jay), canonizing standards like "Boom Boom" and "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer." With little to prove by the end of the '80s - by which point he was already past 70 years old - Hooker connected with blues slide player Roy Rogers, who produced a series of star-studded sessions that established the elder guitarist as a solid collaborator and award winner. 1989's The Healer peaked at an impressive-for-the-genre No. 62 on the Billboard 200 and featured guest appearances by Carlos Santana, Los Lobos, George Thorogood and Bonnie Raitt, whose team-up "I'm in the Mood" won Hooker a Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Performance. Rogers returned alongside a host of producers for 1991's Mr. Lucky, which included appearances by Santana, Keith Richards, Van Morrison, Johnny Winter and Ry Cooder.

Boom Boom kept the momentum going with Rogers again in the producer's chair and more blues survivors offering their services, including Albert Collins ("Boogie At Russian Hill"), Robert Cray ("Same Old Blues Again"), blues harpist Charlie Musselwhite ("Thought I Heard") and Jimmie Vaughan (who duetted with Hooker on the titular re-recording of his signature song). It's a solid album without ever drifting into stately territory, and as good a later intro as anything into the sound and style of John Lee Hooker.

Both formats can be purchased at the below links and are now shipping - or they're available now, if your local record store is stocking it. (As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.)

Boom Boom (BMG 964168662, 2025)

CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

1. Boom Boom (feat. Jimmie Vaughan)
2. I'm Bad Like Jesse James
3. Same Old Blues Again
4. Sugar Mama
5. Trick Bag (Shoppin' for My Tombstone)
6. Boogie At Russian Hill
7. Hittin' the Bottle Again
8. Bottle Up and Go
9. Thought I Heard
10. Ain't Gonna Suffer No More
11. Dimples
12. Ain't No Love in This House

Tracks 1-10 released as Pointblank/Charisma V2-86553, 1992
Tracks 11-12 released on Shout! Factory 826663-10329, 2007