Jane Lee Hooker; Photo Credit: Sloane Morrison
Fusing modern attitude with vintage swagger, Jane Lee Hooker exploded on the NYC club scene with 2016’s No B! , a debut album whose rocket-fueled blues covers won acclaim from both Rocks Magazine and American Blues Scene, and led them onto major stages like Rockpalast in Germany, Mountain Jam, and The Big Blues Bender.
Individually, the five members have pedigree to burn, turning heads and tearing up stages in seminal bands from Nashville Pussy to Bad Wizard. But when Dana ‘Danger’ Athens (vocals), Hail Mary Z (bass), Melissa ‘Cool Whip’ Houston (drums), Tracy ‘Hightop’ (guitar), and Tina ‘T Bone’ Gorin (guitar) hooked up in 2013, they swore a blood pact to take Jane Lee Hooker all the way. “We’re a gang,” say the lineup. “We’re a family”, they emphatically state.
Their second album, Spiritus, (Ruf Records) finds the band writing their own entry into the great rock ‘n’ roll songbook. The album was written by the band as a unit, and they hit the studio with producer Matt Chiaravalle and set the controls to ‘GO.’ The band members explain, “We wanted this album to sound like we do live – raw and high energy.”
The first single, “Mama Said,” features dueling guitars, rumbling bass, and defiant, pick-yourself-up lyrics. The video is an homage to the Rolling Stones’ “Waitin’ on a Friend” video, shot on the same St. Marks Place stoop in NYC’s East Village by celebrated B-movie director Lola Rock‘n’Rolla.
