Same Old Blues Again: John Lee Hooker's Late-Period 'Boom Boom' Gets Reissued

Same Old Blues Again: John Lee Hooker’s Late-Period ‘Boom Boom’ Gets Reissued

July 28, 2025 By Mike Duquette — No Comments

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

Boom Boom (feat. Jimmie Vaughan)
I’m Bad Like Jesse James
Same Old Blues Again
Sugar Mama
Trick Bag (Shoppin’ for My Tombstone)
Boogie At Russian Hill
Hittin’ the Bottle Again
Bottle Up and Go
Thought I Heard
Ain’t Gonna Suffer No More
Dimples
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

Categories:

News

Formats:

CD, Vinyl

Genres:

Blues

Tags:

Jimmie Vaughan, John Lee Hooker

Mike Duquette

Mike Duquette (Founder) was fascinated with catalog music ever since he was a teenager. A 2009 graduate of Seton Hall University with a B.A. in journalism, Mike paired his profession with his passion through The Second Disc, one of the first sites to focus on all reissue labels great and small. His passion for reissues turned into a career, having written at and worked for all three major catalogue music labels and contributing to Allmusic, Billboard, Discogs, City Pages and Ultimate Classic Rock. He's penned liner notes for Verve, Chess, Mondo and Soul Music Records.

Born and raised in New Jersey, Mike lives in Astoria, Queens with his wife, a cat named Ravioli, twin daughters and a large yet tasteful collection of music.