The Healer

I really enjoyed that. I only know one or two famous songs by JL Hooker, so I have nothing to compare this collection, but I very much enjoyed listening to it.

VERY high 4 god i need to listen to Blues way more often this was brilliant.

Solid album that is a bit too heavy on collabs. Still a fun time overall

Love JLH voice, this brings back memories when I was into him in the 1980s, can’t remember how, but must’ve been from a fi score, so I have several Hooker albums, this doesn’t disappoint- excellent collaborations, loved it.

Bluesy, so good 5/5 Also listened to Diamond Life by Sade for Kate

This kind of feels like if we got collaborator Carlos Santana’s Supernatural instead of one of his other albums but, album list griping very briefly aside, this was great.

Love the blues and Bonnie Rait is a guest on I’m I the mood

i have learned that i actually tend to enjoy blues

80s blues - weird combo but i liked it. had a headache so was a little zoned out but there's much worse music to have a headache to

Very good, an enjoyable listen. Good back story too!

I really enjoyed this.

Yep. 4

Probably heard his work before, and there may be better stuff out there. However, for such a highly praised Blues artist (going by what reviews I read) I expected more. 993/1001

Top. C'est 4.5

Great guitar sound. The rough voice works really well with it. Nice blues album.

This was a nice relaxed blues album. I enjoyed it a lot. I have a hard time judging blues and its quality, but I know I really enjoyed my listen through this one and just really vibed.

I think if you were to ask me which album to recommend if you wanted to get into blues, I'd recommend this one. And even though he sometimes would just keep repeating himself (repeating himself) it's very good, and I enjoyed every second of it (every second of it).

Listening to this got me on a blues listening spree. Great guitar, excellent singing, and top-tier collabs (especially the Santana song). It shows the range of different songs you can create within the seemingly simple blues framework.

16/09/2026 I enjoyed this. Spotify listeners: 1.5 million

i like some bluesrock but this one didn't really get me

i really love ir

Slow blues music that wasn't my thing. The song with Santana was the highlight of the whole album.

3 ig

Sounds like bland blues by a token band at a corporate event. Unfortunately this falls into the category of “if you’ve heard three or four blues songs, you’ve heard them all.” Boring, repetitive, predictable blues music. John Lee Hooker is a seminal figure in the blues/music. This is not the album to showcase a man who at that point had been making music for forty years. Last track brings this snoozer to two stars, as it’s the only song here that does not sound like stock footage blues.

Now you see, this album is one of those rare gems that keeps me plowing through the scores of absolute rubbish on this list. Every once in a while you stumble across an album like this one that just touches your soul. A testament to greatness. Ten stars.

Effortlessly cool. Went down well on a warm Sunday afternoon.

Day1017 - some great blues and we get los lobos and bonnie raitt

Blues is another blind spot of mine. I really enjoyed this.

Found this ok. Probably would have liked it more if it wasn’t a collaboration album and even more if Santana wasn’t the first collaboration.

A Blues legend finally getting paid AND getting the long overdue recognition he deserved. Hope I sound that good when I'm 73.

Late 80s blues rock. Silky smooth and sexy.

I know the man is a blues legend, but this cannot be his best work.

Ok

The Healer: I didn’t realize there were all these collaborators at first and thought “wow he really sounds like Santana!”. I like the Bonnie Rait and Robert Cray ones too. Whole album was cool. 4? 5? 4.5 Solid album it’s better than Simply Red and I enjoyed it more consistently than Neil Young but it’s not like Headhunters or Songs in Key of life good.

This was a pretty cool album to check out, but to be honest, I’ll probably never come back to it because blues is one of those styles of music that’s never really appealed to me all that much, especially this particular type of blues. But I can still appreciate the album for what it is.

Te veel van hetzelfde. Niet echt wat ik zoek in het leven.

I'm tempted to bump this rating a bit higher as a stand-in for something more significant from John Lee Hooker's career but this is the album we were given

Very samey and a bit depressing really

Disappointing. JLH has one of the best voices in blues, but this showcases him in the wrong way. The opening track with its Sade-style 80s production is AWFUL. It does get a little better, but I spent the whole thing longing for a proper acoustic blues recording. An absolute missed opportunity - even some of the better guests don't add much of note. Scrapes a 2.

Aight

John Lee Hooker was an Blues Icon and this is a late career album. While there is some good John Lee Hooker here, much of the album features collaborators, who frequently turned it into there thing with John Lee Hooker providing background. I much preferred his solo stuff, the last three songs, to the collaborations.

Something felt off as soon as I started reading. It's a blues album, I know the name John Lee Hooker, but it's from the late '80s. The era doesn't feel right for a must-listen blues album, but then we've got the title track starting the album off with Santana and his band. Does it feel like blues? Barely. It has enough Santana flavor to make the track work, though, and frankly it only makes me want to listen to Smooth. In fact, some 10 years later Santana pulls of Supernatural with an idea real similar to this album, use other artists to freshen up your sound, and it'd make all the sense in the world to me that the inspiration came from this album. It ends with three solo pieces, but by then your ears have been primed for another type of production quality. It makes for a shaky ending. As expected, the blues element is faded and washed here, buried under decades of production techniques that strip the essence of the sound. I can understand it being mildly successful for a few years after its release because there's not many other blues artists competing for the top spot, but outside of "fresh new blues" this album doesn't hold itself up as well as other older classics. I'm sure John Lee himself has better technically fulfilling albums. It's not bad, I'm just never going to listen to this again. 2.75/5

nice bluesy vibes. enjoyed

Gorgeous Blues Soul of the second era

I like this kind of blues in moderation

Ok...a blues album from 1989 with a lot of guests? Interesting... Anyway, it's alright blues music. There's some cool guitar bits on some of the tracks, but much of it isn't that interesting. I don't feel like the guests on most of the songs add anything significant to any of them. Also, this probably isn't the greatest representation of John Lee Hooker or blues music in general. It's ok, but nothing special. This album is ranked #10 of 26 albums for 1989. Other 1989 albums rated by me: Disintegration(1/26)-5 Doolittle(2/26)-5 The Stone Roses(3/26)-3 Like a Prayer(6/26)-3 Done by the Forces of Nature(12/26)-4 Rhythm Nation 1814(13/26)-3 Let Love Rule(14/26)-2 Fromohio(15/26)-2 Nick of Time(17/26)-2 Djam Leelii(19/26)-4 Moss Side Story(24/26)-2

This feels unfair. A grizzled old bluesman who was in his pomp in the 60s and 70s, but they've decided to represent him with this late 80s selection of so-so collabs. I wish it did more for me because he's influential and I love blues guitar. But I found it a bit of an uninspiring listen that doesn't really showcase Hooker as well as I'd like alongside the other names featured.

Fine

Tidvis litt kult. Tidvis litt cheese. Alltid litt kjedelig.

dark dark deep blues. usually not my cup of tea, but i like his voice as well as how the instruments sound. i wouldn't go through a whole album, but listening to a few songs from time to time? why not.

Including this is a travesty. John Lee Hooker is a blues legend, so why choose a tinny 1980s album with collabs over any of his more substantial work?

pretty good

The blues, man... sonically, amazing. Lyrically and spiritually, depressing af.

The best way to honor an elder statesman of amped blues would probably be to pick one of his golden-era albums instead of a late-era mishmash of collaborations, but the cover is pretty cool

Kinda cool to hear a multitude of bands record with Hooker. But it mostly sounds like these performers doing their thing with a JLH guest appearance. Fairly dull, really. And why does he sound like he recorded his vocals in a parking garage?

wiso würmer es john lee hooker album vode 80er do druf tue hahaha. santana??? hahahaha ich finds huuuuere asss. santana nonie ganz checkt und de sappy 80er sound mit ihm zeme und de hooker wo chli blues umejommeret isch jo würkli nöd mol so guet. sally mae tönt endlich so wie er tönt. nöd grossi band mit keys bullshit. er, giratte, en fuess macht d drums. fuesball

eventuell muss ich jz zerst es album vo primal fear lose, will det druff s lied the healer isch, wo als chind e ziit lang mis lieblingslied gsi isch MMMHHHH DE GUITAR-TONE ISCH HOTTTT hmm sehr es neus album für sini verhältnis sini stimm isch krass hahahah I'm in the mood isch no cool mitem hii und her vode bonnie raitt undem hooker aber joaa omg canned heat!!! scho lang nümme ah sie denkt hmm jaa schlecht isches nöd (glaub für mich muss seehr vill falsch laufe, dass ich blues je schlecht find) aber meh als es 3 gits glaub nöd

Not terrible but not the best. Low 3.

3.5 C'est sympa mais pas memorable

Glitzy 80s production effectively neuters a blues icon and creates a dry snoozefest that the guests do little to assist on (Besides maybe Los Lobos- but that just makes me want to listen to them). Disappointing

One day I will become the man I am meant to be, and fall in love with a blues album. Today is not that day.

Good

Decent listen.

I’m not a huge blues fan, but this was pretty dern good. I’m healed!

lovely album! the first song the healer made it on the playlist!

Blues. That’s all there’s to it, nothing really stood out for me but it’s damn fine blues album. The vibes are immaculate. Gets a little bit boring though after a while, a little monotonous, so there’s that.

Listening session: september 18th, while getting ready in the morning Listened to before: no Thoughts: I’m not a blues lover so this was really boring to me Favourite track: The Healer

Favorite track(s): The Healer, Rockin' Chair In the author's not-so-secret war against Black artists, he chooses to feature a decrepit, feature-ridden album from a blues legend rather than his finer works.

Day 38 As Peter Griffin once said, "I do not care for blues" Fav track: The Healer

Blues being blues

A nice vibe

Some fun blues

Pretty standard blue jam

some perfectly fine music, but the only thing i can describe this as is a completely unedited "blues template". there are a couple of great songs (most notably, the title track), but i see no reason why i would ever want to return to this album, due to how bare-bones and basic it is.

JLH always produces but with additional artists aboard this album is outstanding

That duet with Bonnie raitt was a 5 star track

It's a perfectly fine Blues album - not much else I can think of to say than that. 5/10

Not bad. Interesting, but not for me. 2.5 rounded down to 2.

Phenomenal. Give this to me every day.

hooting and hollering

Это эссенция крутости, потому что это блюз, а блюз это круто. Нет в этом мире ничего круче блюза, а если вы считаете иначе, то см. п. 1. Блюзмены придумали слово "круто" вот настолько они крутые. А это еще и крутой блюз. Поэтому это круто.

Not for me.

I really like John Lee Hooker, but this is mostly watered down blues. Liked Songs Added: Think Twice Before You Go

Sorry but this one was not good. Legendary blues man collaborating with other legends but just ends up sucking the life out of the tunes. Sad really.

John Lee Hooker is a legend, but this is not his best work.

Easy going and enjoyable. Some good bluesy tunes.

What a bizarre album to choose from an artist whose contribution is so large and whose catalogue is so deep. Hooker had been releasing albums for 30 years before this series of collaborations came out. I’ve got no problems with any of these songs or the contributions from other important artists. But this still feels like a strange choice to include here.

A couple of the songs were good but the album was too slow for my taste. 3 stars or C-.

Excellent album.

🔥🔥🔥

плюс вайб

A lot of pan flute for a blues record. Considering I like Santana and the Blues generally, the title track is awful. It's like Yanni and Muddy Waters had a Latino baby. The songs with Bonnie Raitt and George Thorogood are probably my favorite songs. This is the album that gave Santana the idea for Supernatural...aging musician in a well-developed genre collaborates with younger musicians on most of the album. I also really like My Dream. The Muddy Waters album I had already was much better.

2.75 rounded to 3 Real meat-and-potatoes “older statesman of blues” album, with some very 80s guests. No track really stands out in particular, but none of em are bad or anything. The Santana feature is fun.

cooking album

Entretenido

Una cumbre indiscutible del blues eléctrico y de raíz que ha envejecido bien como el testamento definitivo de la vigencia y sabiduría de una leyenda viva. En el plano de diseño formal, la producción de Roy Rogers logra un entretejido que da claridad a toda la propuesta acústica, integrando con enorme pulcritud las diversas guitarras solistas, percusiones y arreglos invitados alrededor del pulso hipnótico y terrenal del maestro del delta. La interpretación de John Lee Hooker desborda una fuerza y calidez que transmiten autenticidad sin concesiones, imponiendo una autoridad superior a través de un timbre grave, sabio y reposado. Obras maestras como el ritual místico de "The Healer" junto a Carlos Santana, la tensión visceral de "I'm in the Mood" con Bonnie Raitt y la solitaria crudeza acústica de "Rockin' Chair" configuran un documento profundamente conmovedor, crudo y real que funciona como un sutil llamado a la conciencia sobre el valor terapéutico y espiritual del dolor transformado en arte. Un trabajo cuya cadencia envolvente y constante sensación de paz y fluidez lo vuelven extraordinariamente apto para múltiples usos, brillando como un acompañante excepcional para potenciar el trabajo creativo, la conducción en carretera o sumergirse en una reflexión solitaria.

Terribly boring, mumbling blues.

A great Bluesman, not sure about the collab with everyone else here.

Fantastic legend of the blues.

Think of this as a gateway drug to the earlier John Lee Hooker recordings - that's where the good stuff is.