Hooker and his band were reaching deep into their bag of boogie blues for a decidedly less glamorous audience: a field full of inmates at Correctional Training Facility in Soledad. The discovery of this unsung album at Recycled Records in New Monterey made me want to dig into the story behind this unique concert and recording. Like a record on a turntable, Hooker Jr. From his home in Roseville, Calif. There I was in the infamous Soledad Prison.
Before Hooker Sr. On Hooker Sr. Throughout the album, the crowd of about inmates is clearly fired up. It was great. Hooker Jr. They knew it was raw. They knew it was unrehearsed. We just got up there and did what we did. But the inmates at Soledad had no idea that they might have related to Hooker Jr.
The son of the blues legend had just been released from a Michigan prison a few months earlier, and he would return to Soledad a few years later β but not on tour. When Hooker Jr. The son of the blues legend says he was addicted to heroin at the time. He was processed in the prison population and then assigned to a work crew. I was the guy who stood by the stage to guard you. Since Hooker Jr.
This time, it was in a group made up of other prisoners. It was something to do. The Weekly is powered by the generosity of readers like you, who support our mission to produce engaging, independent and in-depth journalism. After two years at Soledad, Hooker Jr. In , Hooker Jr. When he returned, his passion for music was replaced by something else.
He says he had been ordained as a preacher by the Progressive Church of God in Christ in Sacramento in before falling off the wagon again, leading to his second imprisonment at Soledad. Once he was out of Soledad again, Hooker Jr. He notes that the life of a musician was not a good match for a man easily tempted by drugs.
