Sam Hooper Group

With four CDs released on the FBJoy Records label, singer-guitarist Sam Hooper, who grew up in Shaker Heights, has assembled a significant discography. His songs have been featured on the daytime TV dramas All My Children and The Young & the Restless. The guys in his band are no slouches. Keyboardist Sakait N. Baksar plays with the local jazz-fusion band Horns and Things, and bassist Derrick James is the music director for the band. Produced by Hooper and Mike Null and recorded by James Kananen in Cleveland at Bad Racket Studios, Hoodoo Blues, the latest from Hooper and Null, features a classic blues sound. A song like "Messin' with the Hook" features a terrific mid-song jam punctuated by some back and forth between Hooper and Baksar. Mixing and mastering was handled by India.Arie producer/engineer Jim Lightman at JL Productions in Nashville. (Niesel)