Great Blues Man, Great Blues Music. "John Lee Hooker was an influential American post-war blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter born in Coahoma County near Clarksdale, Mississippi. From a musical family, he was a cousin of Earl Hooker. John was also influenced by his stepfather, a local blues guitarist, who learned in Shreveport, Louisiana to play a droning, one-chord blues that was strikingly different from the Delta blues of the time. John developed a half-spoken style that was his trademark. Though, similar to the early Delta blues, his music was rhythmically free. His best known songs include "Boogie Chillen" (1948) and "Boom Boom" (1962)"