Lightnin' Hopkins - The Great Electric Show and Dance (US 1970)

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Sam "Lightnin" Hopkins was a Texas country bluesman of the highest caliber whose career began in the 1920s and stretched all the way into the 1980s. Along the way, Hopkins watched the genre change remarkably, but he never appreciably altered his mournful Lone Star sound, which translated onto both acoustic and electric guitar. Hopkins' nimble dexterity made intricate boogie riffs seem easy, and his fascinating penchant for improvising lyrics to fit whatever situation might arise made him a beloved blues troubadour.

Hopkins' brothers John Henry and Joel were also talented bluesmen, but it was Sam who became a star. In 1920, he met the legendary Blind Lemon Jefferson at a social function, and even got a chance to play with him. Later, Hopkins served as Jefferson's guide. In his teens, Hopkins began working with another pre-war great, singer Texas Alexander, who was his cousin. A mid-'30s stretch in Houston's County Prison Farm for the young guitarist interrupted their partnership for a time, but when he was freed, Hopkins hooked back up with the older bluesman.

The pair was dishing out their lowdown brand of blues in Houston's Third Ward in 1946 when talent scout Lola Anne Cullum came across them. 

She had already engineered a pact with Los Angeles-based Aladdin Records for another of her charges, pianist Amos Milburn, and Cullum saw the same sort of opportunity within Hopkins' dusty country blues. Alexander wasn't part of the deal; instead, Cullum paired Hopkins with pianist Wilson "Thunder" Smith, sensibly re-christened the guitarist "Lightnin'," and presto! Hopkins was very soon an Aladdin recording artist.

"Katie May," cut on November 9, 1946, in L.A. with Smith lending a hand on the 88s, was Lightnin' Hopkins' first regional seller of note. He recorded prolifically for Aladdin in both L.A. and Houston into 1948, scoring a national R&B hit for the firm with his "Shotgun Blues." "Short Haired Woman," "Abilene," and "Big Mama Jump," among many Aladdin gems, were evocative Texas blues rooted in an earlier era.

Lightnin' Hopkins - US Promo Single 1970

A load of other labels recorded the wily Hopkins after that, both in a solo context and with a small rhythm section: Modern/RPM (his uncompromising "Tim Moore's Farm" was an R&B hit in 1949); Gold Star (where he hit with "T-Model Blues" that same year); Sittin' in With ("Give Me Central 209" and "Coffee Blues" were national chart entries in 1952) and its Jax subsidiary; the major labels Mercury and Decca; and, in 1954, a remarkable batch of sides for Herald where Hopkins played blistering electric guitar on a series of blasting rockers ("Lightnin's Boogie," "Lightnin's Special," and the amazing "Hopkins' Sky Hop") in front of drummer Ben Turner and bassist Donald Cooks (who must have had bleeding fingers, so torrid were some of the tempos).

But Hopkins' style was apparently too rustic and old-fashioned for the new generation of rock & roll enthusiasts (they should have checked out "Hopkins' Sky Hop"). He was back on the Houston scene by 1959, largely forgotten. Fortunately, folklorist Mack McCormick rediscovered the guitarist, who was dusted off and presented as a folk-blues artist; a role that Hopkins was born to play. Pioneering musicologist Sam Charters produced Hopkins in a solo context for Folkways Records that same year, cutting an entire LP, Lightnin' Hopkins, in Hopkins' tiny apartment (on a borrowed guitar). The results helped introduced his music to an entirely new audience. 

Lightnin' Hopkins - US Promo Single 1970

Lightnin' Hopkins went from gigging at back-alley gin joints to starring at collegiate coffeehouses, appearing on TV programs, and touring Europe to boot. His once-flagging recording career went right through the roof, with albums for World Pacific; Vee-Jay; Bluesville; Bobby Robinson's Fire label (where he cut his classic "Mojo Hand" in 1960); Candid; Arhoolie; Prestige; Verve; and, in 1965, the first of several LPs for Stan Lewis' Shreveport-based Jewel logo.

Hopkins generally demanded full payment before he'd deign to sit down and record, and seldom indulged a producer's desire for more than one take of any song. His singular sense of country time befuddled more than a few unseasoned musicians; from the 1960s on, his solo work is usually preferable to band-backed material.

Filmmaker Les Blank captured the Texas troubadour's informal lifestyle most vividly in his acclaimed 1967 documentary, The Blues Accordin' to Lightnin' Hopkins. As one of the last great country bluesmen, Hopkins was a fascinating figure who bridged the gap between rural and urban styles. 

01. Lovin' Arms  4:21  
02. Rock Me Mama  4:59  
03. Mr. Charlie (Part 1)  1:29  
04. Mr. Charlie (Part 2)  2:36  
05. Play With Your Poodle  1:26  
06. You're Too Fast  3:48  
07. Love Me This Morning  3:26  
08. I'm Coming Home  6:00  
09. Ride in Your New Automobile  4:14  
10. Breakfast Time  3:13

Bonus Tracks:
11. Mr. Charlie Parts 1 & 2 (alt. mix)  5:01 
12. Play With Your Poodle (alt. mix)  2:01 
13. My Daddy Was A Preacher (Unissued)  4:08
14. Letter To My Back Door Friend (Unissued)  3:55 
15. Huntin' In The Mornin' (Unissued)  3:25 
16. I'm Comin' Home (alt. mix)n  2:52 
17. Ride In Your New Automobile (alt. mix)  4:13 
18. A Death In The Family (Unissued)  5:19  

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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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Lightnin' Hopkins - In Berkeley (Great Blues Album US 1969)

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1969 Arhoolie Stereo Release by Composer/Guitarist/Acoustic Blues Vocalist Sam "Lightnin" Hopkins Entitled in Berkeley, Produced by Chris Strachwitz, Side A Features Legendary Composer Lightnin Hopkins on Guitar and Vocals, Side B Adds the Brilliant Francis Clay on Drums, All Compositions Written by Sam Hopkins - "Sam Hopkins was a Texas country bluesman of the highest caliber whose career began in the 1920s and stretched all the way into the 1980s. Along the way, Hopkins watched the genre change remarkably, but he never appreciably altered his mournful Lone Star sound, which translated onto both acoustic and electric guitar. Hopkins' nimble dexterity made intricate boogie riffs seem easy, and his fascinating penchant for improvising lyrics to fit whatever situation might arise made him a beloved blues troubadour. Hopkins' brothers John Henry and Joel were also talented bluesmen, but it was Sam who became a star. 

Lightnin' Hopkins Poster 1969

Sam Hopkins was a Texas country bluesman of the highest caliber whose career began in the 1920s and stretched all the way into the 1980s. Along the way, Hopkins watched the genre change remarkably, but he never appreciably altered his mournful Lone Star sound, which translated onto both acoustic and electric guitar. Hopkins' nimble dexterity made intricate boogie riffs seem easy, and his fascinating penchant for improvising lyrics to fit whatever situation might arise made him a beloved blues troubadour. 
Hopkins' brothers John Henry and Joel were also talented bluesmen, but it was Sam who became a star. In 1920, he met the legendary Blind Lemon Jefferson at a social function, and even got a chance to play with him. Later, Hopkins served as Jefferson's guide. In his teens, Hopkins began working with another pre-war great, singer Texas Alexander, who was his cousin. A mid-'30s stretch in Houston's County Prison Farm for the young guitarist interrupted their partnership for a time, but when he was freed, Hopkins hooked back up with the older bluesman.

The pair was dishing out their lowdown brand of blues in Houston's Third Ward in 1946 when talent scout Lola Anne Cullum came across them. She had already engineered a pact with Los Angeles-based Aladdin Records for another of her charges, pianist Amos Milburn, and Cullum saw the same sort of opportunity within Hopkins' dusty country blues. Alexander wasn't part of the deal; instead, Cullum paired Hopkins with pianist Wilson "Thunder" Smith, sensibly re-christened the guitarist "Lightnin'," and presto! Hopkins was very soon an Aladdin recording artist. 

"Katie May," cut on November 9, 1946, in L.A. with Smith lending a hand on the 88s, was Lightnin' Hopkins' first regional seller of note. He recorded prolifically for Aladdin in both L.A. and Houston into 1948, scoring a national R&B hit for the firm with his "Shotgun Blues." "Short Haired Woman," "Abilene," and "Big Mama Jump," among many Aladdin gems, were evocative Texas blues rooted in an earlier era. 

A load of other labels recorded the wily Hopkins after that, both in a solo context and with a small rhythm section: Modern/RPM (his uncompromising "Tim Moore's Farm" was an R&B hit in 1949); Gold Star (where he hit with "T-Model Blues" that same year); Sittin' in With ("Give Me Central 209" and "Coffee Blues" were national chart entries in 1952) and its Jax subsidiary; the major labels Mercury and Decca; and, in 1954, a remarkable batch of sides for Herald where Hopkins played blistering electric guitar on a series of blasting rockers ("Lightnin's Boogie," "Lightnin's Special," and the amazing "Hopkins' Sky Hop") in front of drummer Ben Turner and bassist Donald Cooks (who must have had bleeding fingers, so torrid were some of the tempos).

But Hopkins' style was apparently too rustic and old-fashioned for the new generation of rock & roll enthusiasts (they should have checked out "Hopkins' Sky Hop"). He was back on the Houston scene by 1959, largely forgotten. Fortunately, folklorist Mack McCormick rediscovered the guitarist, who was dusted off and presented as a folk-blues artist; a role that Hopkins was born to play. Pioneering musicologist Sam Charters produced Hopkins in a solo context for Folkways Records that same year, cutting an entire LP, Lightnin' Hopkins, in Hopkins' tiny apartment (on a borrowed guitar). The results helped introduced his music to an entirely new audience. 

Lightnin' Hopkins went from gigging at back-alley gin joints to starring at collegiate coffeehouses, appearing on TV programs, and touring Europe to boot. His once-flagging recording career went right through the roof, with albums for World Pacific; Vee-Jay; Bluesville; Bobby Robinson's Fire label (where he cut his classic "Mojo Hand" in 1960); Candid; Arhoolie; Prestige; Verve; and, in 1965, the first of several LPs for Stan Lewis' Shreveport-based Jewel logo. 

Hopkins generally demanded full payment before he'd deign to sit down and record, and seldom indulged a producer's desire for more than one take of any song. His singular sense of country time befuddled more than a few unseasoned musicians; from the 1960s on, his solo work is usually preferable to band-backed material. 

Filmmaker Les Blank captured the Texas troubadour's informal lifestyle most vividly in his acclaimed 1967 documentary, The Blues Accordin' to Lightnin' Hopkins. As one of the last great country bluesmen, Hopkins was a fascinating figure who bridged the gap between rural and urban styles. 

01. Please Settle in VietNam    
02. Up on Telegraph    
03. Wipe Your Feet on the Floor    
04. Send My Child Home to Me    
05. Selling Wine    
06. Brand New Look    
07. Have You Ever Loved a Woman    
08. Little and Low    
09. Hold Up Your Head    
10. Good Times Here    
11. Annie's Boogie    
12. Black and Evil
+ Bonus Tracks 

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Lightnin' Hopkins - Dirty Blues (US 1971) (1949-51 Recordings)

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Texas & West Coast blues legend Lightnin' Hopkins delivers an amazing set with his 1971 "Dirty Blues" album. There was nobody quite like Lightnin’ Hopkins. John Lee Hooker may have made more records but even he couldnt match the consistently high level of Hopkins creativity. Lightnin' and his vast repertoire represented the epitome of Texas country blues. No question. He came from a musical family and his unique guitar style was fashioned from the traditions he learned in the presence of Blind Lemon Jefferson and Texas Alexander, a distant cousin. His guitar both underscored and complemented the songs he drew from his own life and the lives of those around him.

All Tracks is recorded between 1949-51.

01. Home In The Woods 2:50  [1951]
02. Tap Dance Boogie 2:30  [1951]
03. Worried Blues 1:50  [1951]
04. One Kind Of Favor 2:55  [1951]
05. Untrue Blues 3:05  [1949-50]
06. Fast Life Woman  2:47  [1949-50]
07. My Heart To Weep 2:32  [1951]
08. I'll Never Forget The Day 3:00  [1951]
09. Broken Hearted Blues  2:50 [1951]
10. Lightnin's Gone Again 2:44 [1951]
11. European Blues 2:45  [1949-50]
12. Lightning's Blues 2:50  [1949-50]

Bonus Tracks:
13. Nwe Worried Life Blues [1951 Bonus]  
14. Country Mary [1951 Bonus]
15. I'm Begging You [1951 Bonus]
16. Why Did YouGet Mad at Me [1951 Bonus]
17. Down to The River [1951 Bonus]
18. Tell Me Baby [1951 Bonus]
19. Talking, Lightnin' & Bobby Shad - What Kinf of Heart Have You [1951 Bonus]
20. Broken Hearted Blues [1951 Bonus] 

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Lightnin' Hopkins - Matrix 1965

Lightnin' Hopkins - The Blues (US 1965) (1951 Recordings)

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Bluesman Sam "Lightnin’ Hopkins was a direct link to the rural blues tradition and a key figure in the transition from country to city blues. He recorded for a host of labels and was one of the most prolific blues artists of the twentieth century. In the 1920s, 1930s, and early 1940s Hopkins traveled through Texas playing at beer joints, picnics, and parties. He recorded as a popular artist after World War II and was rediscovered by folklorists in 1959, prompting a resurgence in his popularity and leading him to worldwide fame as a blues guitarist and singer.

Richard C. Walls in Musician wrote that Hopkins possessed "a bruised whiskey voice" that had "a clipped but expressive sound" and also noted that Hopkins’s delivery was "a singular and affecting mix of private pain and public celebration." The performer rarely emoted on record, Walls remarked, but when he did, it was "hair-raising." "More often he [drew] the listener in, [confiding] or [stating] a plain truth," observed Walls, "letting his virtuosic guitar playing elaborate on the feeling."
As a country blues guitarist, Hopkins was "powerful" and "idiosyncratic," according to Rolling Stone reviewer David Fricke. His playing possessed "a dark rhythmic drive" that "in a solo setting, physically charged the rugged poetic beauty of his ‘po’ Lightnin’ laments and the gnarly poignancy of his singing." In a group setting, Hopkins produced some virile blues recordings, though some back-up musicians could not keep up with his improvisational approach.

Taught by a Master
Sam Hopkins was born into the blues life on March 16, 1912, in Centerville, Texas, a small farm town north of Houston. Hopkins’s musician father, Abe, was killed over a card game when Sam was only three, and Sam’s grandfather had hung himself to escape the indignities of slavery. After his father died, Sam’s mother, Francis Sims Hopkins, moved him and his four brothers and one sister to Leona, Texas. When Sam was eight, he made his first guitar out of a cigar box and chicken wire. His brother Joel taught him the basic chords, but it was at the feet of Texas bluesman Blind Lemon Jefferson that Hopkins began his real blues education.

Hopkins met Jefferson around 1920 at a Baptist Church Association meeting in Buffalo, Texas. Jefferson was singing and playing for the crowd; Hopkins, who was only eight, got behind the stage and joined in. At first Jefferson was angered, but when he noticed that Hopkins was just a boy, he softened and showed Hopkins a few licks. It wasn’t too much later that

Hopkins left home to hobo through Texas playing in the streets, at picnics, parties, and dances—often just for tips. Even at the age of eight he knew he wasn’t willing to live the hard life most Texas blacks faced in those days. "Chop that cotton for six bits a day, plow that mule for six bits a day—that wasn’t in storage for me," he told Les Blank in the film documentary The Sun’s Gonna Shine.

Hopkins eventually reconnected with Jefferson and for a time served as his guide. Then in the late 1920s Hopkins formed what was to be a long-running duo with his cousin, blues singer Alger "Texas" Alexander. The two played the Houston bar circuit and toured eastern Texas. During this era Hopkins was chronically short of money. At one point he was sentenced to a chain gang for committing adultery with a white woman. He probably also served time in the Houston County Prison Farm in the late 1930s.

When Hopkins married, he and his first wife hired themselves out to Tom Moore, a farmer whose callousness Hopkins immortalized in the song, "Tom Moore’s Blues." "You know," he sang, "I got a telegram this morning/It say your wife is dead/I showed it to Mr. Moore he says/‘Go ahead nigger, you know you gotta plow a ridge’/That white man said ‘It’s been rainin’/Yes sir I’m way behind/I may let you bury that woman/On your dinner time."

In 1943 Hopkins married his third wife, Antoinette Charles, and moved to a large farm north of Dallas, where he worked for a time as a sharecropper. Around 1946, he was given a new guitar by a family friend, "Uncle" Lucian Hopkins. That inspired Sam to move back to Houston where he teamed up with his old partner Tex Alexander to play the local beer joints.

"Thunder and Lightnin’"
As luck would have it, at that time Lola Anne Cullen of Aladdin Records was in Houston scouting for blues artists. She discovered Hopkins and paired him with Wilson "Thunder" Smith, creating the team "Thunder and Lightnin’." Lightnin’s pairing with "Thunder" was short lived, but his relationship with Aladdin proved fruitful. "Katie Mae Blues," his first single, was a hit around Houston and its success led to 41 more sides for Aladdin.

'After a few years, Hopkins left Aladdin and contracted with Houston’s Gold Star Records. Hopkins insisted that record company owner Bill Quinn pay him $100 cash per song at the recording sessions; he was convinced that he would be ripped off otherwise. Looking back, however, historians have commented that this arrangement caused Hopkins to lose large sums in royalties.

Through the early 1950s, Hopkins recorded for small labels and hit Billboard magazine’s rhythm and blues Top Ten with songs like "T Model Blues" and "Coffee Blues." His uptempo numbers of this era helped to pioneer rock and roll, but rock’s teenage audience had little interest in Hopkins himself. To make matters worse, his original black audience also abandoned him for a more teen-oriented sound. Given his declining popularity, record companies lost interest in Hopkins, and he stopped recording as a popular artist in 1956.

Regained Fame
Scarcely three years after his exit from the popular marketplace, Hopkins was "discovered" by Houston folklorist Mack McCormick and introduced to a college educated audience, which saw the blues as "folk music." That same year folklorist Samuel Charters devoted a chapter of his book The Country Blues to Hopkins and recorded a whole album of Hopkins’s material for release on Folkways.

When labels realized that Hopkins’s sparse acoustic guitar and understated prose appealed to white audiences, they rushed to record him. In 1962 he won Down Beat magazine’s International Jazz Critics’ Poll in the New Star, Male Singer category. In the years that followed he "became a hero to academia, the young, the educated, and the liberals," according to Greg Drust and Stephen Peeples, who wrote the notes to Mojo Hand: a Lightnin’ Hopkins Anthology. "Beyond his stature as a bluesman," Drust and Peeples continued, "Lightnin’ also functioned as a teacher, philosopher, and shaman of sorts."

Remained True to Roots
Through the 1960s and 1970s, Hopkins continued to record. He became one of the post-World War 11 blues’ most prolific talents. He toured the United States and Europe and completed hundreds of sessions for scores of major and independent labels. But while his fame grew, his attitude toward his career remained much the same as it had when he was roaming around Texas. "He hated to fly, and refused to have a telephone," Les Blank wrote in Living Blues. "He turned down tour offers of $2,000 a week yet played in small rough Houston bars for $17 a night." In 1967 Hopkins was featured in Les Blank’s short subject documentary, The Sun’s Gonna Shine. The following year he was featured in another Les Blank documentary, The Blues According to Lightnin’ Hopkins, which won a Gold Hugo Award at the Chicago Film Festival as the best documentary of 1970.

In 1970 Hopkins was in an auto accident that put his neck in a brace and initiated a steady decline in his health. Nevertheless, he maintained a compulsive work rate during the 1970s, touring the United States, Canada, and Europe. He died of cancer of the esophagus on January 30, 1982. Remembering Hopkins, filmmaker Blank told Drust, "He was a clown and oracle, wit and scoundrel. Like Shakespeare, he had an understanding of all people and all their feelings. He [was] an eloquent spokesman for the human soul which dwells in us all."

All tracks is 1951 recordings

01.Hello Central
02.Coffee Blues
03.Long Way From Texas
04.Mad As I Can Be
05.New Short-Haired Woman
06.Gotta Move
07.Everybody's Down On Me
08.Freight Train
09.Prayin' Ground Blues
10.Don't Think I'm Crazy
11.Dirty House Blues
12.Everything Happens To Me
+ 5 Bonus Tracks

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