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Teddy Lee Hooker |
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Performing
at the Tacoma Freedom Fair
July 4, 2008: 8:30 PM - 10:00 PM
on the Duke's Chowder House Blues Stage
Teddy Lee Hooker was born in Ohio. When he was five years old his sister Freda married the blues guitar legend, John Lee Hooker. One day, while John Lee was practicing, he placed his guitar down and took a break. Teddy Lee walked in from playing outside and began strumming John Lee’s guitar, amazed at the incredible sound coming out of the amp! When John Lee came back in, Teddy ran out, a bit scared, thinking that he was surely in trouble. To Teddy’s surprise, the following day John Lee handed him an acoustic guitar and said, “This is yours, now leave mine alone”!
Teddy Lee goes on to tell his own story.
“John Lee showed me a few chords and I was hooked. I never put it down, often sitting beside him when he was playing, trying to imitate his playing and copy his groove. A few years later John Lee and my sister parted ways, but he had left his mark on me. At the age of nine, I saw T. Bone Walker perform. It was then that I knew with certainty that I wanted to be a professional blues guitarist. My parents couldn’t afford guitar lessons so I had to teach myself. I absorbed as much music as I could, including Jim Hendrix’s “Red House.” Soon after, my father bought me an electric guitar. Over the next few years I got into jazz. I met an incredible guitarist named Bill DeRango, who opened my ears forever by teaching me how to improvise and phrase.”
“Throughout the years I have performed with many incredible musicians of all styles, but the blues is what burns in my soul. It always comes back to John Lee Hooker. Muddy Waters once said that there were not many young blacks carrying on the musical tradition, which is so much a part of Afro-American culture. My passion is to carry that torch and along the way put my mark on the music for future generations. Thank you Muddy Waters, Robert Wolf, T. Bone, and all who have come before and after, for this music. And John Lee Hooker, I will love you forever”!
Find out more about the Teddy Lee Hooker at www.teddyleehooker.com
