Lightnin' Hopkins

Sam Hopkins, who died in 1982, left behind a staggering collection of country and urban blues as personal and topical as any artist of his time. He recorded solo acoustic; he recorded with small backing groups of anywhere from one to four players, some playing acoustic instruments, some playing electric. He talked some of his blues; he sang most of them. In narrative and ambience, his acoustic sides reflect the country life and attitudes he stayed close to from the cradle to the grave; his band sides burn with the fierce energy of rock & roll, as if the artist were acknowledging the quickening pace of society around him. From his songs you sense the man: witty, acerbic, truculent, deep feeling, confident, loyal, giving, somewhat sentimental, sensitive, engaged in the world, and if not misogynistic, certainly quick with his put-downs of the distaff side.

In 1946 Sam was discovered by a talent scout for the Aladdin label and sent to Los Angeles to record with pianist Wilson "Thunder" Smith. Thunder and Lightnin''s single, "Katie Mae Blues," did well in the Houston area, and Hopkins returned to the Aladdin studio, where he was to cut 41 more sides between 1946 and 1948, now collected on the double-CD set The Complete Aladdin Recordings, one of the critical early documents in Hopkins' recording history.

Arhoolie's Early Recordings and The Gold Star Sessions document the beginnings of his career (1947-50), when he was recording a broad variety of material. For example, in the midst of the fairly traditional folk blues on volume 1 of The Gold Star Sessions, Hopkins launches into "Zolo Go," accompanying himself on organ. The title is a phonetic misspelling of zydeco, and the song is one of the early recorded examples of that genre, cut several years before Clifton Chenier first appeared on record.

From the 1950s, Hopkins is represented by a set of recordings made for the Herald label, now issued on Collectables as The Herald Recordings – 1954 and The Herald Recordings Vol. 2; on BMG/Buddah as Lightnin' and the Blues: The Herald Sessions; and by Smithsonian/Folkways' Lightnin' Hopkins, recorded in 1959 when he was rediscovered in Houston by blues scholar Samuel Charters. Setting up a tape recorder in Hopkins' drab living quarters, Charters held the microphone in his hand while the artist produced one remarkable performance after another. The chit chat is kept to a minimum here, save for one brief but vivid reminiscence about Lightnin''s personal encounters with Blind Lemon Jefferson. Otherwise, "Penitentiary Blues," "Bad Luck and Trouble," "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean," "Trouble Stay Away From My Door," and the salacious "Fan It" represent a blues titan at the top of his game.

One of Hopkins' most productive periods occurred between 1960 and 1964, when he recorded for the Prestige label. The seven-CD box set The Complete Prestige/Bluesville Recordings is a must-have title. As for individual Prestige/Bluesville titles, Smokes Like Lightnin' is highly recommended, both for the quality of the songs -- "Prison Farm Blues" is a grim portrait of the bleakest of places a bluesman could and often did land -- and for folklorist/producer Mack McCormick's liner notes.

Last Night Blues, with Sonny Terry sitting in on harmonica and singing one song, is quintessential Lightnin'. His vocals are crisp and clear, full of feeling, and he's right there on guitar, strong and cutting and propulsive, as Terry's harmonica snakes it way through the melody line, energizing Hopkins' every lick. Hootin' the Blues is a live album from 1962, recorded at the Second Fret in Philadelphia, featuring among its cuts an etiology of the blues ("The Blues Is a Feeling") and an original instrumental dialogue imagining a musical interchange between Lightnin' and Ray Charles ("Me and Ray Charles"). Straight Blues (1999) collects a dozen tracks culled from three Prestige/Bluesville albums and also contained on the seven-CD box set. These range from four solo efforts cut in Houston in 1961 to two with bass and drum accompaniment recorded in May 1964 and six solo acoustic live tracks from December 1964. It includes "Get It Straight," one of the artist's few forays into traditional country music.

In 1964, Lightnin' recorded with his brothers John Henry and Joel at John Henry's home in Waxahachie, Texas. This was something of a family reunion, since John Henry had not been in touch with his siblings or mother in years. As evidenced on The Hopkins Brothers, this was a reunion full of laughter, love, and some melancholy over time passed -- Lightnin''s disc-opening "See About My Brother John Henry" is about as sad as blues gets. Other Arhoolie titles are worthy examples of the variety of blues Lightnin' was proffering in his later years. Po' Lightnin', in particular, is recommended.

Sometimes I Believe She Loves Me (1964) finds him accompanying the blues/folk singer Barbara Dane on guitar and vocals on an interesting collection of numbers. Some were written by Dane (whose earthy voice has an appealing rough edge, not unlike, say, Bonnie Raitt's or Maria Muldaur's), some by Lightnin', and covers of two Woody Guthrie songs ("Don't You Push Me Down" and a stirring version of "Deportees") and Malvina Reynolds' "Bury Me in My Overalls."

Arhoolie also has reissued on CD a live album from 1968 featuring Hopkins, Mance Lipscomb, and zydeco king Clifton Chenier (who was Hopkins' cousin by marriage by this time), recorded at the Berkeley Music Festival. Hopkins, playing electric guitar and backed by drummer Francis Clay, is medium-cool throughout, offering up some of his signature songs -- "Short Haired Woman," "Lightnin's Boogie," "Black Cadillac" -- as well as a strutting take on Big Bill Broonzy's "I Feel So Good." The real star of the show was Chenier, accompanied only by his accordion and Clay on drums. Of special note are his cover versions of Slim Harpo's "Scratch My Back" and a rocking version of Ray Charles' "What'd I Say."

From Hopkins' brief tenure on Chicago's Vee Jay label, two must-have albums remain in print, both from the Collectables catalogue. Lightnin' Strikes, from 1962, features Hopkins solo acoustic and electrified with a backing band, and though it's a mere 10 cuts total, it's full of fury, anger, heartbreak, and outrage. "War Is Starting Again" is a surging, outraged blues decrying the waste of human lives in Vietnam, from the moment the news media was starting to document the ever-escalating nature of the war. Equally startling, from a personal standpoint, is the spoken/sung acoustic blues "Walkin' Round in Circles," with Hopkins firing off angry licks to punctuate his litany of life's woes.

Collectables' four-volume Anthology of the Blues series is culled from the Everest label's vaults and takes Hopkins from the late '50s into the early '60s. The four albums in the series are available either individually or as a box set titled From the Vaults of Everest Records, which is handsomely packaged but poorly annotated, a persistent flaw with Collectables reissues. Another Collectables title, Mojo Hand, features some of Hopkins' most searing guitar work, close-miked and violent in its intensity, produced by Bobby Robinson, whose Fire and Fury labels were home to some of the great blues and R&B artists of the '50s.

From later years comes the GNP Crescendo Legacy of the Blues entry, which in 1976 reunited Hopkins with Samuel Charters for what proved to be one of the artist's final recording sessions. Collectables also chips in with an intriguing five-volume series titled The Lost Texas Tapes, which may be (there's no annotation) recordings Hopkins made in Houston in the '70s for the Home Cooking label. (Collectables has two other Home Cooking releases in its Hopkins catalogue, Lonesome Life and Lightnin' Hopkins Strikes Again.) Volumes 1 through 3 are Hopkins solo; 4 and 5 bring on guest artists. Volume 4 is a live recording, a true down-home effort done in a club or restaurant; patrons are heard conversing in the background, and on one track a cash register rings as Hopkins plays. He's accompanied by Curley Lee, who blows mean and low harmonica fills throughout and engages Hopkins in some humorous but cutting between-songs banter.

Among several Hopkins overviews, three stand out. Arhoolie's The Best of Lightning Hopkins has 17 tracks of choice performances: seven recorded for Gold Star between 1947 and 1950, the other 10 cut in Houston and Berkeley for Arhoolie. The songs run the gamut from classic blues ("Whiskey Blues") to gospel ("Jesus Will You Come by Here," again with Hopkins on piano) to social commentary ("Mr. Crow & Bill Quinn," "Tim Moore's Farm," "Please Settle in Vietnam"). You can't go wrong with this one. Ditto for Rhino's Blues Masters entry, The Very Best of Lightnin' Hopkins, with 16 tracks recorded for 10 different labels, beginning with Aladdin in 1947 and concluding with tracks cut for Folkways in 1961.

Finally, for those who really want some sense of the path of Hopkins' career, get Mojo Hand: The Lightnin' Hopkins Anthology. This well-annotated double-CD set contains 41 cuts, ranging from the original "Katie Mae Blues" cut for Aladdin with Thunder Smith in 1947 to a 1974 track previously released on a Swedish blues album. Among other things, this set shows that no matter the passing of time and trends, Hopkins remained true to his style and never ran out of things to say. (DAVID MCGEE)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide