Detroit Music Weekend returns in July with a tribute to John Lee Hooker

This year’s Detroit Music Weekend on July 2 will honor the blues, with a tribute to the late John Lee Hooker and a “Women of the Blues” showcase with his daughter Zakiya Hooker and others. 

Taking place on July 2 at the amphitheater outside Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts, Detroit Music Weekend is a free event. It kicked off in 2017 with a performance and tribute to Aretha Franklin.

Zakiya Hooker will accept a Key to the City on behalf of her father, a Mississippi native who came to Detroit for work in the 1940s where he became popular in the local clubs. The story goes that the guitarist was working as a janitor in Detroit when his best-selling single, “Boogie Chillen,” was released. 

A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Blues Hall of Fame, Hooker also received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000, one year before his death. 

The “Women of the Blues” lineup includes Zakiya Hooker along with Ana Popovic, Bettye LaVette, Thornetta Davis, Eliza Neals and Tosha Owens. Later, inside Music Hall at Aretha’s Jazz Café, there will a blues jam with Jimmy D. Scott and others. 

Detroit Music Weekend is noon-10 p.m. July 2 at 350 Madison in Detroit. 

 Additional acts will be announced closer to the event. Artists who wish to apply can do so at detroitmusicweekend.org until June 17. 

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