This is a seven-CD box set that repackages all 11 LPs that Lightnin' Hopkins recorded for Bluesville and Prestige during the first half of the 1960s: Last Night Blues, Lightnin', Blues in My Bottle, Walkin' This Road By Myself, Lightnin' and Co., Smokes Like Lightning, Hootin' the Blues, Goin' Away, Down Home Blues, Soul Blues and My Life in the Blues. The very prolific Hopkins (who was never loyal to any one label) also recorded for Candid, Arhoolie, Fire and Vee Jay during the period! The bulk of My Life in the Blues is actually a lengthy and rather historic interview that Samuel Charters conducted with Hopkins. A special bonus of the set is 13 often exciting tracks from a previously unissued concert at the Swarthmore College Folk Festival. The music throughout the box covers quite a variety of moods and subject matter (with Hopkins being unaccompanied on 34 of the tracks) and definitively sums up the veteran bluesman's later period.
CD #1
01. Rocky Mountain (5:01)
02. Got To Move Your Baby (4:04)
03. So Sorry To Leave You (4:23)
04. Take A Trip With Me (5:07)
05. Last Night Blues (5:19)
06. Lightnin's Stroke (4:58)
07. Hard To Love A Woman (4:04)
08. Conversation Blues (3:54)
09. Automobile Blues (4:34)
10. You Better Watch Yourself (5:01)
11. Mean Old Frisco (3:43)
12. Shinin' Moon (4:09)
13. Come Back Baby (3:30)
14. Thinkin' 'Bout An Old Friend (5:08)
15. The Walkin' Blues (3:25)
16. Back To New Orleans (3:22)
17. Katie Mae (4:05)
18. Down There Baby (4:07)
#1-8 - 26 oct. 1960
#9-18 - 9 nov. 1960
CD #2
01. Black Gal (4:12)
02. Baby Don't You Tear My Clothes (3:48)
03. Good Morning Little School Girl (3:10)
04. Coffee Blues (3:42)
05. Buddy Brown's Blues (98 Degree Blues) (4:07)
06. Wine Spodee-O-Dee (3:05)
07. Sail on, Little Girl, Sail on (4:20)
08. DC-7 (4:33)
09. Death Bells (3:54)
10. Goin' To Dallas To See My Pony Run (3:51)
11. Jailhouse Blues (3:20)
12. Blues In The Bottle (3:17)
13. Beans, Beans, Beans (2:28)
14. Catfish Blues (4:19)
15. My Grandpa Is Old Too! (3:04)
16. T Model Blues (2:52)
17. Jackstropper Blues (3:28)
18. You Cook All Right (4:20)
19. You Never Miss Your Water (2:42)
20. Let's Do The Suzie Q (3:44)
21. Smokes Like Lightning (5:14)
#1-4 - 13 jul. 1961
#5-15 - 26 jul. 1961
#16-21 - jan. 1962
CD #3
01. How Many More Years I Got To Let You Dog Me Around (3:02)
02. Black Cadillac (3:41)
03. Walkin' This Road By Myself (4:53)
04. The Devil Jumped The Black Man (4:14)
05. My Baby Don't Stand No Cheating (2:09)
06. You Is One Black Rat (2:31)
07. The Fox Chase (3:20)
08. Mojo Hand (3:23)
09. Mama Blues (5:18)
10. My Black Name (4:01)
11. Ida Mae (5:30)
12. Prison Farm Blues (4:35)
13. Worried Life Blues (2:58)
14. Happy Blues For John Glenn (5:24)
15. Sinner's Prayer (3:48)
16. Angel Child (3:36)
17. I Got A Leak In This Old Building (5:23)
18. Pneumonia Blues (3:32)
19. Have You Ever Been Mistreated (4:04)
#1-11 - 17 feb. 1962
#12-19 - 20 feb. 1962
CD #4
01. Blues Is A Feeling (8:03)
02. Me And Ray Charles (3:37)
03. In The Evening (3:22)
04. Ain't It Crazy (2:27)
05. Last Night I Lost The Best Friend I Ever Had (4:37)
06. Everything (3:00)
07. I Work Down On The Chain Gang (5:13)
08. Meet Me In The Bottom (2:30)
09. Business You're Doin' (3:21)
10. Wake Up Old Lady (4:27)
11. Stranger Here (5:53)
12. Don't Embarrass Me, Baby (3:24)
13. Little Sister's Boogie (3:34)
14. Goin' Away (5:49)
15. You Better Stop Her (4:42)
16. I'm Wit' It (4:03)
17. Let's Go Sit On The Lawn (4:16)
18. I Woke Up This Morning (5:53)
#1-8 - 17 may 1962
#9-16 - 4 jun. 1963
#17-18 - 4 may 1964
CD #5
01. Baby, Please Don't Go [#] (4:25)
02. My Black Cadillac [#] (5:49)
03. It's Crazy [#] (4:34)
04. Mojo Hand [#] (3:40)
05. My Babe [#] (3:41)
06. Short Haired Woman [#] (5:04)
07. Mean Old Frisco [#] (2:29)
08. Trouble In Mind [#] (3:24)
09. The Twister [#] (3:45)
10. Green Onion [#] (3:02)
11. Sun Goin' Down [#] (3:39)
12. Come Go Home With Me [#] (3:40)
13. I'm A Stranger [#] (4:22)
14. I Got Tired (4:40)
15. I Like To Boogie (3:54)
16. I Asked The Bossman (6:47)
17. I'm Taking A Devil Of A Chance (3:57)
18. Just A Wristwatch On My Arm (3:35)
#1-13 - 5 apr. 1964, Swarthmore College concert, previously unreleased [#]
#14-18 - 4 may 1964
CD #6
01. I Was Standing On 75 Highway (5:11)
02. Get It Straight (1:31)
03. I'm Going To Build Me A Heaven Of My Own (5:59)
04. My Babe (3:24)
05. Too Many Drivers (3:32)
06. I'm A Crawling Black Snake (4:52)
07. Rocky Mountain Blues (3:54)
08. I Mean Goodbye (3:03)
09. The Howling Wolf (3:56)
10. Black Ghost Blues (3:33)
11. Darling, Do You Remember Me? (3:41)
12. Lonesome Graveyard (5:32)
13. I Don't Want To Do Nothing To You (2:35)
14. You Is One Black Rat (3:12)
15. Got Nowhere To Lay My Head (6:29)
16. Just Boogyin' (2:25)
17. Take Me Back (2:12)
18. I Was Down On Dowling Street (5:11)
#1-2 - 4 may 1964
#3-12 - 4-5 may 1964 (mono)
#13-18 - 2 dec. 1964 (mono)
CD #7 (Lightnin' Hopkins as interviewed by Samuel Charters)
01. I Growed Up With The Blues (5:07)
02. My Family (4:29)
03. I Learn About The Blues (6:21)
04. I First Come Into Houston (3:23)
05. I Meet Texas Alexander (5:17)
06. They Was Hard Times (6:10)
07. I Do My First Record And Get My Name (6:36)
08. My Thoughts On The Blues (5:24)
