Jane Lee Hooker are the kind of girl-gang that scared the squares and bewitched the rockers in those 50s teen movies. Comprising Dana ‘Danger’ Athens (vocals), Melissa ‘Cool Whip’ Houston (drums), Tracy ‘Hightop’ (guitar), Tina ‘T-Bone’ Gorin (guitar) and Hail Mary Z (bass), they’ve put a rocket under a handful of blues standards and given them a new lease of life.
With all the swagger in the world, Athens injects a garage-punk rawness to Muddy Waters’ Mannish Boy, Johnny Winter’s Mean Town Blues and Albert King’s The Hunter, while the sole original track here, In The Valley, finds them dancing with the devil and suggesting that there may be more original tunes from them in the future.
It’s fiery, just the right level of grubby, and a righteous kick in the shins for those overly respectful bores who usually handle these songs with kid gloves.
