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Garden City Blues on CD

Once the heart of America's motor industry, many of Detroit's production lines are derelict and 30,000 houses are empty or demolished. Neighbors now grow vegetables for neighbors, while industrialised farming waits to take over. The inner city tries to regenerate itself but wholesale bankruptcy acts as a deterrent. Music and gas-guzzling cars stagger on but the city that nurtured the talents of the artists featured here has all but vanished. As well as automobiles, there was music. But until Motown, Detroit even lacked a major record label. Activity - and there was plenty - came from a handful of independents - Fortune, JVB, Sensation and Staff among them - who relied on local talent. Then there was Elmer Barbee, the owner of a record store with a studio in the rear. He it was who found John Lee Hooker playing a little bar on Monroe Street. The pair persisted for a year before - through the success of Boogie Chillun - Hooker's talent became increasingly widely known. Here are many of Hooker's early Detroit recordings and of the many - Sylvester Cotton, Bobo Jenkins, Eddie Kirkland, Eddie Burns among them - who hoped to achieve, and occasionally did achieve - similar success.