Jazz Articles

Our daily articles are carefully curated by the All About Jazz staff. You can find more articles by searching our website, see what's trending on our popular articles page or read articles ahead of their published dates on our Coming Soon page. Read our daily album reviews.

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Album Review

Lightnin' Hopkins: Straight Blues

by AAJ Staff
September 1, 1999

Cobbled together from three sessions, these sides have nothing in common – nothing but Lightnin’ and a mighty hard blues. He can sound weary, but not here: the strings bite and the notes sneak up, soft with a nasty edge. “Black Gal” has been cruel, but she’ll get hers: “You know, just like you treat poor Lightnin’/ Someone treat you the same way too.” The backing fits: bass string throbbing under twisting top notes. A lonely despair, and you hear ...