John Lee Hooker Lights Up the Deep Dark Blues

Blues deity John Lee Hooker is a master of style. He cuts a formidable, urbane presence beneath his crisp white fedora as he sits center stage, cradling a Gibson electric guitar across his lap. Observe the dark suit and suspenders, the wraparound shades and jewelry, the desperate droning about “you-you-you-you-YOU!”

His repertoire is focused on the eternal theme of love gone wrong. And this is how Hooker greeted the crowd gathered Saturday for Day 1 of the Doheny Blues Festival in Dana Point. During a rare, and too brief, concert appearance, Hooker reaffirmed his ease with the darkest of the deep blues.

Longevity has only added to Hooker’s legend. His continued survival as a legitimate musical force this many decades after launching his career in 1948 has left him a lonely elder statesman of the lowdown blues. Songs like “Boogie Chillen” have had a profound influence on later generations of rockers and bluesmen, from the Rolling Stones to Robert Cray (who headlined the weekend festival’s second night on Sunday).

On Saturday, the festival crowd spent the daylight hours being serenaded by a busy schedule of rhythm and blues acts, including the swing revivalists of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, the horn muscle of Tower of Power and the electric blues power of guitarist Coco Montoya. But it was Hooker who was the day’s representative of the core folk blues.

He focused on playing his standard repertoire, essentially ignoring the fine recordings he has made since reemerging as a serious album artist in 1990 with “The Healer.”

His new “Don’t Look Back” album was produced by longtime disciple Van Morrison. But the lack of new material made Hooker’s set no less essential for followers of the blues.

His six-piece band is called together two or three times a month for Hooker’s sporadic concert dates, since he’s no longer interested in a grueling tour schedule. As a warmup to Hooker’s appearance, the band offered a few minutes of good-time boogie via such R & B chestnuts as “Walkin’ the Dog”; it was a solid effort, but unremarkable. It took Hooker’s hard-edged focus to bring the unit alive.

That was true even though Hooker filled out much of the hourlong set with generous solo time for his band members. Under his guidance, the solos often paid off and rarely diminished the set’s momentum. Saxman Kenny Baker, who has been a Hooker sideman for 15 years, added more rocket fuel to the fire. Backup singer Joyce “Juce” Garcia lent a sultry presence to Hooker’s torrid groaning.

Hooker is no flash guitar wizard a la Jimmy Page or Eddie Van Halen, but he finds a rugged emotionalism with a minimum of moves and licks. The sound is often repetitive, but hypnotic. It was enough to move much of the VIP crowd upfront to rise from the comfort of their lawn chairs and shout back enthusiastically to many of Hooker’s sorrowful proclamations.

Not least among these was Hooker’s show-closing thought: “My life, my life, is like a memory, in the past, in the past. And that ain’t right.”