Earl Hooker (born January 15, 1929 in Clarksdale, Mississippi; died April 21, 1970 in Chicago, Illinois) was an American blues guitarist. Hooker was a Chicago slide guitarist in the same league as Elmore James, Hound Dog Taylor, and his mentor, Robert Nighthawk. Some Chicago blues guitarists even consider Hooker to have been the greatest slide player ever.Santelli, Robert. The Big Book of Blues, Penguin Books, page 213, (2001) - ISBN 0141001453 Career Born Earl Zebedee Hooker in Clarksdale, Mississippi, from a music-inclined family (he was a cousin of John Lee Hooker), taught himself to play guitar around the age of 10 and shortly thereafter his family migrated to Chicago where he began attending the Lyon & Healy Music School in 1941.[LINK: http://truefire.com/playbluesguitar/feature1.html] Unsung Heroes of The Blues Earl Hooker: The Best Yet? From the knowledge he