I became acquainted with Lightnin' Hopkins' music in the very early 1970's while living on a hog farm in the country outside Gainesville, Fla. When someone would put on Lightnin's album, the mood around the farmhouse would change drastically. Talk about good vibes, these blues were my introduction to the real blues and they made life feel easier and smoother even though the work on the farm was hot and dirty.
I say the real blues because that was Hopkins' legacy. Born in Centerville, Texas (Mar. 15, 1912), little more than 50 years down the road from real slavery, there was plenty of blues still left to go around. And out of this early east Texas soup kettle of blues that produced the great, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Hopkins sprang. And quickly I might add, when as "just a little boy", (his own words), he insinuated himself into one of Blind Lemon's sets at a social function, without being asked to leave. Quite an accomplishment, considering his young age, (probably about 15 or so), and Blind Lemon's stature as Bluesman of the day. Well, Lemon took a shine to young Sam and let Sam accompany him from place to place, serving as the blind Bluesman's guide and sideman.
You might wonder how and why Sam Hopkins was prepared at this early age to jump in (literally) next to the likes of Blind Lemon Jefferson. Well, not only was he cocky, but he had another secret. There was a wellspring of this music in his own family. Both of his older brothers, John Henry and Joel were accomplished blues players and his cousin was another great Bluesman of the day, Texas Alexander, whom he worked with from time to time in the 1930's, interrupted only by Sam's short stretch at the Houston county farm prison. Later in the mid 1940's this pair (Texas & Lightnin') was traced out by L.A. talent scout Lola Anne Cullum, who after sending audition tapes to Aladdin Records owners, the Messner bros., spirited Hopkins to Los Angeles for his first professional recordings. As fate would have it, Texas Alexander disappeared before they left for California and was replaced with Texas barrelhouse piano player Wilson Smith. It was during the first session at Radio Recorders in Hollywood on Nov. 9,1946 that these two were billed as Thunder & Lightnin'. From then on Hopkins would have this tag, aptly describing this great artist's personality as well as his singing and guitar playing abilities.
This EMI release of Hopkins complete Aladdin recordings begins with Katie May, cut on the very first day in the studio, it became an instant radio hit. On the first of the two discs in this set, Wilson Smith wrote and sang four of the 22 songs. All the others, save "Tampa Red" Whittaker's famous Let Me Play With Your Poodle were written by Lightnin'. Amazingly Hopkins was just shy of 35 and had been playing professionally for almost 20 years when these very first tracks of his recording career were laid down. This gave him a tremendous head start on developing his own unique style, called at the time "air music". This spontaneous, pulled from the "air" playing and singing was mostly unheard of before Lightnin' came along. Luckily most of these first recorded songs were done in this style, one take!, and what you hear is what you get!!!
The rudimentary mechanics of the blues, that Lightnin' probably invented and definitely employs during every second of his striking performance will be revealed to the careful listener. Those with experienced "blues" ears will no doubt recognize the signature forms and "licks" of this music that were unmistakably passed down and assimilated into the lexicon of the modern blues giants. Only the great T-Bone Walker has had an equal effect and influence on this genre of American music. Each of these Lightnin' originals (17 on the first disc and all but two of 21 on the second) not only tell great stories of Hopkins' life and times but also stand out as historical snapshots of the blues idiom. Their shear improv is readily evidenced with this lyric line from Katie May: "She walks just like she gotta oil well in her back yard" followed by "yes you'll never hear that woman hootin' hollerin' cryin' an talkin' bout these times bein' hard". With Blues (That mean ole' twister) you hear: "Yeah you know the wind was blowin', comin' in my windows and doors" and then "yeah you know my house done fell down and I can't live there no more". How does it get more real than that?!?!
