Lightnin' Hopkins - Selftitled (Great & Rare Blues Album US 1959)

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Originally released as The Roots of Lightnin' Hopkins, Smithsonian/Folkways' Lightnin' Hopkins was recorded in 1959. Upon its initial release, it was a pivotal part of the blues revival and helped re-spark interest in Hopkins. Before it was recorded, the bluesman had disappeared from sight; after a great deal of searching, Sam Charters found Hopkins in a rented one-room apartment in Houston. Persuading Lightnin' with a bottle of gin, Charters convinced Hopkins to record ten songs in that room, using only one microphone. The resulting record was one of the greatest albums in Hopkins' catalog, a skeletal record that is absolutely naked in its loneliness and haunting in its despair. These unvarnished performances arguably capture the essence of Lightnin' Hopkins better than any of his other recordings, and it is certainly one of the landmarks of the late-'50s/early-'60s blues revival.

Recorded in Houston, Texas on January 16, 1959. Originally released in 1959 on Folkways (FS3822). Includes liner notes by Sam Charters. When folklorist Sam Charters tracked down Lightnin' Hopkins in Houston in 1959, the blues musician was discouraged enough about his music career to have pawned his guitar. Over the previous dozen years, Hopkins had recorded for numerous small labels, creating great music and occasionally hitting the charts. But his raw blues had recently fallen out of fashion. Charters bailed the guitar out of hock and bought the bluesman a bottle of gin. 

The pair then proceeded to Hopkins' dingy hotel room to record the album that revitalized Hopkins' career, establishing the Texas bluesman as a darling of the 60's folk circuit. In retrospect, it's easy to see how Hopkins caught on with '60s folk audiences. He had the pedigree--as a child, he led Blind Lemon Jefferson around the streets of Houston. Hopkins had a complex personality. As a singer, the bluesman manages to project charm and orneriness simultaneously. His fluid guitar style is both exquisitely musical and technically impressive, while his facility for improvising lyrics undoubtedly delighted many audiences. For both its historical significance and the quality of the music it contains, LIGHTNIN' HOPKINS is a necessity for any serious blues fan. 

Solo Performer: Lightnin' Hopkins (vocals, guitar). Reissue producer: Matt Walters. Personnel: Lightnin' Hopkins (vocals, guitar, piano). Recording information: Houston, TX (01/16/1959). Entertainment Weekly (4/5/91) - A - "These country blues are as natural as breathing. Hopkins tells his stories effortlessly, with warm, conversational singing and fleet, stinging acoustic guitar. The songs have wonderful spontaneity, as if Hopkins didn't know where they'd end until he got there...fresh and powerful."

Sam Hopkins, born March 15, 1912 in Centerville, Texas had his first hit single at age 37 early in 1949 when Tim Moore's Farm, originally released on Gold Star 640, but picked up and released on Modern 673, made it to # 13 on what then passed for the R&B charts (Most Played Juke Box Race Records) with You Don't Know on the flip-side. Later that year Gold Star released another cut made for them, "T" Model Blues, which got as high as # 8 on what had evolved into the Most-Played Juke Box Rhythm & Blues Records charts. The B-side was Jail House Blues by Frankie Lee Sims.

US Single 1956

Towards the end of 1950 his recording for Aladdin, Shotgun Blues, became his best hit when it peaked at # 5 on those same charts b/w Rollin' Blues. It would be two years before he returned to the charts, this time with the quaintly-named Sittin' In With label, as the wonderful Give Me Central 209 (sometimes listed as Hello Central) topped out at # 6 b/w New York Boogie in March, followed in April by another # 6, Coffee Blues, which had New Short Haired Woman as the B-side. It was also released that year on the JAX label.

And that was it insofar as hit singles were concerned, following which Hopkins disappeared from view, until sought out in 1959 by Sam Charters. Details of that search are contained in the two pages of liner notes written in 1990 by Charters. And this album, originally released in 1959 by Folkways, was the result of that meeting. As Charters says in the notes "We recorded it (0n January 16, 1959) in the shabby room he was renting (at 2803 Hadley Street in Houston), and I held the microphone in my hand so I could move it down toward the guitar when he playing a solo, and then move it close enough to his lips for his singing, but not too close when he started to edge up on it."

The result is Blues Magic, including the not-to-be-missed track 7 where Lightnin' reminisces about "Blind" Lemon Jefferson, one of the most influential blues singer and guitarist ever and a fellow Texan who was popular in the 1920's. The photo of Lightnin' on the cover of this CD was taken by Charters at the time of the recording. Hopkins, whose cousins Smokey Hogg and Albert Collins were also noted blues singers/musicians, died after a bout with cancer on January 30, 1982, two years after being inducted into the Blues Hall Of Fame in its inaugural year. [AMG and By "AvidOldiesCollector" (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada)] 

An absolute little jewel that should form part of any serious early Blues collection.  

US Single 1956

BIOGRAPHY:
Sam John Hopkins (March 15, 1912 – January 30, 1982[1]), better known as Lightnin’ Hopkins, was an American country blues singer, songwriter, guitarist and occasional pianist, from Houston, Texas. Rolling Stone magazine included Hopkins at number 71 on their list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time.

Robert "Mack" McCormick stated, "Hopkins is the embodiment of the jazz-and-poetry spirit, representing its ancient form in the single creator whose words and music are one act".

Life:
Born Sam John Hopkins in Centerville, Texas, Hopkins' childhood was immersed in the sounds of the blues and he developed a deeper appreciation at the age of 8 when he met Blind Lemon Jefferson at a church picnic in Buffalo, Texas. That day, Hopkins felt the blues was "in him" and went on to learn from his older (somewhat distant) cousin, country blues singer Alger "Texas" Alexander. Hopkins had another cousin, the Texas electric blues guitarist Frankie Lee Sims, with whom he later recorded. Hopkins began accompanying Blind Lemon Jefferson on guitar in informal church gatherings. Jefferson supposedly never let anyone play with him except for young Hopkins, who learned much from and was influenced greatly by Blind Lemon Jefferson thanks to these gatherings. In the mid-1930s, Hopkins was sent to Houston County Prison Farm for an unknown offense. In the late 1930s, Hopkins moved to Houston with Alexander in an unsuccessful attempt to break into the music scene there. By the early 1940s, he was back in Centerville working as a farm hand.

Hopkins took a second shot at Houston in 1946. While singing on Dowling St. in Houston's Third Ward (which would become his home base), he was discovered by Lola Anne Cullum from the Los Angeles-based record label Aladdin Records. She convinced Hopkins to travel to Los Angeles, where he accompanied pianist Wilson Smith. The duo recorded twelve tracks in their first sessions in 1946. An Aladdin Records executive decided the pair needed more dynamism in their names and dubbed Hopkins "Lightnin'" and Wilson "Thunder".

US Single 1961

Hopkins recorded more sides for Aladdin in 1947. He returned to Houston and began recording for the Gold Star Records label. During the late 1940s and 1950s Hopkins rarely performed outside Texas. However, he recorded prolifically, occasionally traveling to the Mid-West and Eastern United States for recording sessions and concert appearances. It has been estimated that he recorded between 800 and 1000 songs during his career. He performed regularly at clubs in and around Houston, particularly in Dowling St. where he had first been discovered. He recorded his hits "T-Model Blues" and "Tim Moore's Farm" at SugarHill Recording Studios in Houston. By the mid to late 1950s, his prodigious output of quality recordings had gained him a following among African Americans and blues music aficionados.

In 1959, Hopkins was contacted by folklorist Mack McCormick who hoped to bring him to the attention of the broader musical audience which was caught up in the folk revival. McCormack presented Hopkins to integrated audiences first in Houston and then in California. Hopkins debuted at Carnegie Hall on October 14, 1960, appearing alongside Joan Baez and Pete Seeger performing the spiritual "Mary Don't You Weep". In 1960, he signed to Tradition Records. The recordings which followed included his song "Mojo Hand" in 1960.

In 1968, Hopkins recorded the album Free Form Patterns backed by the rhythm section of psychedelic rock band the 13th Floor Elevators. Through the 1960s and into the 1970s, Hopkins released one or sometimes two albums a year and toured, playing at major folk festivals and at folk clubs and on college campuses in the U.S. and internationally. He traveled widely in the United States, and overcame his fear of flying to join the 1964 American Folk Blues Festival, visit Germany and the Netherlands 13 years later, and play a six-city tour of Japan in 1978.

Hopkins' style was born from spending many hours playing informally without a backing band. His distinctive fingerstyle playing often included playing, in effect, bass, rhythm, lead, percussion, and vocals, all at the same time. He played both "alternating" and "monotonic" bass styles incorporating imaginative, often chromatic turnarounds and single-note lead lines. Tapping or slapping the body of his guitar added rhythmic accompaniment.

Much of Hopkins' music follows the standard 12-bar blues template but his phrasing was very free and loose. Many of his songs were in the talking blues style, but he was a powerful and confident singer. Lyrically his songs chronicled the problems of life in the segregated south, bad luck in love and other usual subjects of the blues idiom. He did however deal with these subjects with humor and good nature. Many of his songs are filled with double entendres and he was known for his humorous introductions.

Statue of Lightnin' Hopkins in Crocket, TexasSome of his songs were of warning and sour prediction such as "Fast Life Woman":

        "You may see a fast life woman sittin' round a whiskey joint, 
        Yes, you know, she'll be sittin' there smilin', 
         'Cause she knows some man gonna buy her half a pint, 
        Take it easy, fast life woman, 'cause you ain't gon' live always..."

Folkways Records – FS3822 (1959)
Recorded at 2803 Hadley St., Houston, TX, USA 
January 16, 1959 by Samuel B. Charters using Ampex Equipment, with an EV 636 microphone.

01."Penetentiary Blues" 2:57    
02."Bad Luck And Trouble" 3:49   
03."Come And Go With Me" 3:56   
04."Trouble Stay 'Way From My Door" 4:09   
05."See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" 2:10   
06."Goin' Back To Florida" 3:13   
07."Reminiscences Of Blind Lemon" 2:16   
08."Fan It" 2:47   
09."Tell Me Baby" 2:36   
10."She's Mine" 4:18

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