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This posthumous release (apparently the first in a series) follows the formula set by Hooker’s 1989 “comeback” disc The Healer: the legendary bluesman choogles his way through a half dozen new tunes and reworked versions of his classic songs with the help of a rotating cast of name musicians.

On board for this disc is Van Morrison, who backs Hooker on a gritty shuffle through “Dimples,” Gov’t Mule’s Warren Haynes, whose stratospheric slide guitar shoots palpable wattage through “Big Road” and “Up and Down”; George Thorogood (who pays back the debt his career owes to Hooker on three tracks), former Allman Bros. Band mate Dickey Betts, Jack Casady, Johnny Winter, longtime Hooker sideman Roy Rogers and Johnnie Johnson.  The result is a selection of well-varnished blues, professionally slung and arranged, with no noticeable bite or soul save when Hooker opens his mouth and lets fly with that ancient voice, especially on “Mad Man Blues” (just as hellbent as the postwar original) and the ferocious “Big Road.” About one-third of the material here is comprised of tracks Hooker was working on before his death in 2001; daughter Zakiya and her band, along with producer Ollan Christopher Bell (Curtis Mayfield), have completed the tracks, with Zakiya lending her smoky vocals to two numbers. It’s hard to knock these cuts, as Zakiya’s intentions are nothing but honorable, but they, along with the rest of the disc, are unmemorable—the last word you’d attribute to a blues pioneer like John Lee Hooker. Completists may want to grab Face to Face for posterity’s sake; all others can find stronger meat in any of the countless record Hooker pressed in his long and singular lifetime.

—Paul Gaita