Jazz Articles about Lightnin' Hopkins
Lightnin' Hopkins: King of Dowling Street
by Scott Gudell
Lightnin' Hopkins was “Laidback, mildly mysterious and the epitome of street corner cool" according to informative liner notes. Well, there is a lot of Hopkins (1912--1982) music coming at you on The King of Dowling Street, a generous, smartly packaged three-disc, '100 proof' triple strength blues collection. Dowling Street was THE Houston street if you wanted to step out in style in the middle of the 20th century. Numerous regional and national musicians performed there, including Houston-based Hopkins ...
read moreLightnin' Hopkins: Straight Blues
by AAJ Staff
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 ...
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