Lightnin' Hopkins collection 1960-2002 [FLAC]

Sam "Lightnin’" Hopkins (March 15, 1912 — January 30, 1982) was a country blues guitarist, from Houston, Texas, United States.

Hopkins' style was born from spending many hours playing informally without a backing band. His distinctive fingerstyle playing often included playing, in effect, bass, rhythm, lead, percussion, and vocals, all at the same time. He played both "alternating" and "monotonic" bass styles incorporating imaginative, often chromatic turnarounds and single note lead lines. Tapping or slapping the body of his guitar added rhythmic accompaniment.

Lightnin' Hopkins - The Acoustic Years 1959-1960 (4 CD, 2013/FLAC)

 Although he had cut sides with the Aladdin, Modern, RPM, Gold Star, Jax, Mercury, and Decca labels in the 1940s and early '50s, Lightnin' Hopkins was back in his home base of Houston, Texas by 1959, all but forgotten. There he was rediscovered by folklorist Mack McCormick, who shifted Hopkins' image to that of an acoustic folk-blues performer, essentially igniting the flame for the rest of Hopkins' career. This four-disc set collects the acoustic sides the bluesman cut in his new incarnation (really just the same old Lightnin' with a slightly different marketing plan) in 1959 and 1960.

 

 

Lightnin' Hopkins - Houston & Shreveport Sessions '63 To '69 (1969/FLAC)

 Texas bluesman Lightnin’ Hopkins career was both long and fruitful. He performed live for six decades and recorded for over 30 years amassing a catalogue that was larger than almost any of his contemporaries. Not only was he prolific but he was also a great raconteur and a very good live performer with an ‘act’ honed to perfection at pre-war dances and parties. His guitar playing was unconventional, some have even called it ragged, but it is not as a guitarist that he will be remembered. Somehow the way he set his songs seemed totally apposite and it gave everything he did an authenticity that few others were ever able to match.

Lightnin' Hopkins - King Of Dowling Street (3 CD, 2021/FLAC)

 

Texas bluesman Lightnin' Hopkins career was both long and fruitful. He performed live for six decades and recorded for over 30 years amassing a catalogue that was larger than almost any of his contemporaries. Not only was he prolific but he was also a great raconteur and a very good live performer with an 'act' honed to perfection at pre-war dances and parties. His guitar playing was unconventional, some have even called it ragged, but it is not as a guitarist that he will be remembered. Somehow the way he set his songs seemed totally apposite and it gave everything he did an authenticity that few others were ever able to match.

This 3 CD set, remastered from analog tapes, contains 57 tracks - 20 never before on CD and 12 previously unreleased performances.

 

Lightnin' Hopkins - All the Classics 1946-1951 [5 CD, 2003/FLAC]

 This five-disc collection from London's JSP Records brings together 126 sides that Lightnin' Hopkins tracked for the Aladdin, Modern/RPM, and Gold Star labels at the very start of his recording career. Included are the Texas bluesman's first hit, "Katie May" from 1946, "T-Model Blues" from 1949, and arguably the most startling Hopkins composition, the powerful "Tim Moore's Farm," also from 1949. Most of the tracks are Hopkins solo, playing either acoustic or electric guitar, but he takes a turn at the organ for "Organ Boogie," a track that shows the same adventuresome liberties with tempo and time that mark all of his work, whatever the instrument.

All tracks have been digitally remastered.

• Lightnin' Hopkins (vocals, guitar);
• Frankie Lee Sims, Joel Hopkins (guitar);
• Thunder Smith (piano).

Recording information:

• Houston, TX (11/04/1946-09/07/1951);
• Los Angeles, CA (11/04/1946-09/07/1951);
• New York, NY (11/04/1946-09/07/1951).

 

Otis Spann, Lightnin' Hopkins - The Complete Candid Sessions [3 CD, 1992/FLAC]

 

Two classic Spann albums: Otis Spann Is the Blues and Walkin' the Blues. Early, potent Spann with flawless liner notes and a complete discography. Also included are the Candid sessions of Lightnin' Hopkins.

 

 

Lightnin' Hopkins - The Complete Prestige/Bluesville Recordings (7 CD, 1991/FLAC)

 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.