Career
Hammond sang and played in a passionate barrelhouse style and moved easily between acoustic and electric guitars, primarily playing acoustic guitars, favoring a steel-bodied National Reso-Phonic Guitar which was older than he was. In 1963, he made his debut recording on Vanguard Records. The album, John Hammond, was one of the first blues albums by a white artist during the folk boom years along with one by Koerner, Ray & Glover both of which were preceded by Dave Van Ronk.
In July of 1963, he played at the Newport Folk Festival and was featured in the blues workshop there alongside John Lee Hooker, Mississippi John Hurt, Dave Van Ronk, and Sonny Terry. He returned there in July, 1964 as part of a line up that included Muddy Waters, Skip James, Mississippi John Hurt, Sleepy John Estes, Son House, Reverend Robert Wilkins, and Mississippi Fred McDowell.
Later in his career, he received critical acclaim having modest commercial success. John Lee Hooker, Roosevelt Sykes, Duane Allman, Rory Gallagher, Willy Deville, Robbie Robertson, Mike Bloomfield, and Charlie Musselwhite played on his records.
Hammond was the only artist who had both Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix in his band at the same time. His longtime booking agent, Mike Kappus, said of an engagement at The Gaslight Cafe in Greenwich Village, Manhattan in 1968, "When Jimi was performing as Jimi James and was suddenly out of work in New York, John lined up a gig with his band, inviting Jimi to join them. During the week-long stint, Chas Chandler (of the Animals fame), was (at the show and being impressed), brought Jimi to London where his career was launched. Jimi stopped back to see John after his first U.S. tour (opening for The Monkees) and once again sat in with John. Eric Clapton was also in NYC at that time, having just finished a U.S. tour with Cream and he too sat in for the rest of the gig.... John had both Jimi and Eric in his band that week".
According to Kappus, "John figured prominently with The Band connecting with Bob Dylan after Bob visited one of John’s recording sessions, which included Levon (Helm) and The Hawks backing John. After touring with Dylan they went on to become The Band." after a famed and tumultuous world tour.
In 1970, he created the soundtrack for the film Little Big Man starring Dustin Hoffman which was nominated by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, (the BAFTAs), for their Award for Best Original Music, formerly known as the Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music. In 1971, two Chuck Berry tunes, Maybelline and No Money Down, tracks from his first two albums, made it onto the soundtrack of the movie Two-Lane Blacktop.
In 1985, he earned a Grammy Award for his performance on the album, Blues Explosion, and was nominated for six more between 1993 and 2006. In the early 1990s, he began recording for the Pointblank Records label. His album,"Got Love If You Want It" with his cover of the Slim Harpo title track was a 1993 Grammy nominee.
Hammond hosted the 1991 Bravo UK television documentary The Search for Robert Johnson, detailing the life of the legendary Delta bluesman. He had a longstanding friendship with songwriter Tom Waits and performed Waits' songs on occasion. In 2001, he released Wicked Grin, an album consisting of Waits' compositions and the traditional spiritual, "I Know I've Been Changed." Waits played guitar and sang backing vocals on the album and was also its producer. In 2001, he was back in the movies with Tom Waits' song "Get Behind the Mule" for the soundtrack of the film, The Last Castle.
In 2003, his album Ready for Love was released which David Hidalgo of Los Lobos produced. Also in 2003, the Blues Foundation voted him as the Blues Music Award winner (formerly the W.C. Handy Award) for Best Acoustic Blues Artist, which is among the highest honors a blues artist can get.
His 2009 album, Rough & Tough, was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album in 2010. In 2011, he was the Blues Music Award winner for Acoustic Artist of the Year and was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. He was honored with two awards at the Hall of Fame induction and awards ceremony in Memphis, in 2015, for Best Acoustic Blues Album for "Timeless" and for Best Acoustic Blues Artist.
