Lightnin' Hopkins with Sonny Terry
Lightnin' Hopkins
Sam Hopkins was born on March 15, 1912 in Centervi… Read Full Bio ↴Lightnin' Hopkins
Sam Hopkins was born on March 15, 1912 in Centerville, Texas. In 1920, at the age of eight, Hopkins met and played with the legendary Blind Lemon Jefferson, even becoming Jefferson's guide for a short time. Hopkins' cousin, the great bluesman, Texas Alexander, was another influence. Their musical partnership was broken up by Hopkins' time in Houston's County Prison Farm during the 1930s.
When Hopkins made his way to Houston's Third Ward in 1946 he was introduced to Lola Anne Cullum, a talent scout who had pieced together deals with companies such as Aladdin Records out of Los Angeles. She paired up Hopkins with a piano player by the name of Wilson "Thunder" Smith and came up with the name "Lightnin'" as an obvious match. It stuck.
Hopkins had no little success with a release named "Katie May," cut on November 9, 1946. After that came a series of releases on the Aladdin label - "Shotgun Blues," "Short Haired Woman," "Abilene" and "Big Mama Jump." The blues floodgate had opened. What followed was more than thirty years of albums on everything from small, obscure labels to big ones. The list includes Modern/RPM, Gold Star, Mercury, Jax, Decca, Astan, and Herald. During this period he cut some of the most ferocious blues guitar mixed with what he called "air songs," meaning those where he'd just pull the lyrics right out of the air on the spot.
Hopkins' career faded until a folklorist by the name of Mack McCormick rediscovered him and presented him under the growing label of "folk artist." It made no difference to Lightnin' what they called him, he played as he always had. In 1959 he worked with Sam Charters on Folkway Records to record a groundbreaking solo album in Hopkins' apartment on a borrowed guitar. Again, Hopkins' career was off and running "like a turkey through the corn."
More albums than can be counted followed, including those on labels such as Candid, Arhoolie, Prestige, Verve, Jewel, World Pacific, Bluesville, Fire and Vee-Jay. For an upfront fee, the whiskey- or gin-flavored albums were often recorded by tiny, obscure one-person labels. Since Hopkins had the gift of the air song, he had no shortage of material. The songs would range from intense, deep-tissue blues to some of the more surrealistic ever recorded as he reached for rhymes.
An apocryphal story of Hopkins as a performer involved Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top. Supposedly, Gibbons heard Hopkins play at a coffeehouse and muttered, "He doesn't even know when to change chords." Hopkins was standing behind Gibbons and leaned forward, surprising the teenager with "Lightnin' change when Lightnin' want to."
Indeed, Hopkins had a bag of licks and patterns that fit largely into two divisions -- slow E and Fast E - with an occasional venture into A. His rhythm and the chord changes went with his feelings at that moment in time and, as such, made it difficult for other musicians to follow. With a few exceptions, his recordings with hired bands later in his life become hopelessly entangled - to quote a Hopkins song - "like a ball of twine."
Hopkins didn't do much of in the way of recording after 1974. He died in Houston on January 30, 1982.
Sonny Terry
Saunders Terrell, better known as Sonny Terry (October 24, 1911-March 11, 1986), was a blues musician. He was born in Greensboro, North Carolina on October 24, 1911, and died on March 11, 1986 in Mineola, New York. He was most widely known for his energetic blues harmonica style which frequently included vocal whoops and hollers, and imitations of trains and fox hunts.
His father, a farmer, taught him to play basic blues harp as a youth. He sustained injuries to his eyes at a young age which eventually prevented him from doing farm work himself. In order to earn a living Sonny was now forced to play music. He began playing in Shelby, North Carolina. After his father died he began playing with Piedmont-style guitarist Blind Boy Fuller. When Fuller died, he established a long-standing musical relationship with Brownie McGhee, and the pair recorded numerous tracks together. The duo became well-known, even among white audiences, as they joined the growing folk movement of the 1950s and '60s. This included collaborations with Woody Guthrie and Moses Asch, producing Folkways Records (now Smithsonian/Folkways) classic recordings.
In 1938 Sonny Terry was invited to play at Carnegie Hall for the first From Spirituals To Swing concert and later that year he recorded for the Library of Congress. In 1940 Sonny Terry recorded his first commercial sides.
Despite their fame as "pure" folk artists, in the 1940s, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee fronted a jump band combo with honking saxophone that was variously called Brownie McGhee and his Jook House Rockers or Sonny Terry and his Buckshot Five.
Terry was also in the 1947 original cast of the Broadway musical comedy Finian's Rainbow.
Album: 'Last Night Blues'
Outside of Blind Lemon Jefferson, Lightnin' Hopkins may be Texas's most distinctive and influential blues export. His easy, fluid fingerpicking and witty, extemporaneous storytelling are always a delight, and his performances on LAST NIGHT BLUES are no exception. The album is spare and acoustic, with Hopkins's voice and guitar accompanied by minimal percussion and Sonny Terry's harmonica.
Terry's contributions really add a lot to these tunes, threading a high, lonesome whine on the downtempo tunes and a chugging, propulsive shuffle on the faster ones. Hopkins is, of course, one of the kings of the blues boogie, but he's equally compelling on the slow blues, and he never missteps throughout this fine set. All told, this dynamite disc represents what the blues should be: stripped-down, soulful, and full of truth.
Sam Hopkins was born on March 15, 1912 in Centervi… Read Full Bio ↴Lightnin' Hopkins
Sam Hopkins was born on March 15, 1912 in Centerville, Texas. In 1920, at the age of eight, Hopkins met and played with the legendary Blind Lemon Jefferson, even becoming Jefferson's guide for a short time. Hopkins' cousin, the great bluesman, Texas Alexander, was another influence. Their musical partnership was broken up by Hopkins' time in Houston's County Prison Farm during the 1930s.
When Hopkins made his way to Houston's Third Ward in 1946 he was introduced to Lola Anne Cullum, a talent scout who had pieced together deals with companies such as Aladdin Records out of Los Angeles. She paired up Hopkins with a piano player by the name of Wilson "Thunder" Smith and came up with the name "Lightnin'" as an obvious match. It stuck.
Hopkins had no little success with a release named "Katie May," cut on November 9, 1946. After that came a series of releases on the Aladdin label - "Shotgun Blues," "Short Haired Woman," "Abilene" and "Big Mama Jump." The blues floodgate had opened. What followed was more than thirty years of albums on everything from small, obscure labels to big ones. The list includes Modern/RPM, Gold Star, Mercury, Jax, Decca, Astan, and Herald. During this period he cut some of the most ferocious blues guitar mixed with what he called "air songs," meaning those where he'd just pull the lyrics right out of the air on the spot.
Hopkins' career faded until a folklorist by the name of Mack McCormick rediscovered him and presented him under the growing label of "folk artist." It made no difference to Lightnin' what they called him, he played as he always had. In 1959 he worked with Sam Charters on Folkway Records to record a groundbreaking solo album in Hopkins' apartment on a borrowed guitar. Again, Hopkins' career was off and running "like a turkey through the corn."
More albums than can be counted followed, including those on labels such as Candid, Arhoolie, Prestige, Verve, Jewel, World Pacific, Bluesville, Fire and Vee-Jay. For an upfront fee, the whiskey- or gin-flavored albums were often recorded by tiny, obscure one-person labels. Since Hopkins had the gift of the air song, he had no shortage of material. The songs would range from intense, deep-tissue blues to some of the more surrealistic ever recorded as he reached for rhymes.
An apocryphal story of Hopkins as a performer involved Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top. Supposedly, Gibbons heard Hopkins play at a coffeehouse and muttered, "He doesn't even know when to change chords." Hopkins was standing behind Gibbons and leaned forward, surprising the teenager with "Lightnin' change when Lightnin' want to."
Indeed, Hopkins had a bag of licks and patterns that fit largely into two divisions -- slow E and Fast E - with an occasional venture into A. His rhythm and the chord changes went with his feelings at that moment in time and, as such, made it difficult for other musicians to follow. With a few exceptions, his recordings with hired bands later in his life become hopelessly entangled - to quote a Hopkins song - "like a ball of twine."
Hopkins didn't do much of in the way of recording after 1974. He died in Houston on January 30, 1982.
Sonny Terry
Saunders Terrell, better known as Sonny Terry (October 24, 1911-March 11, 1986), was a blues musician. He was born in Greensboro, North Carolina on October 24, 1911, and died on March 11, 1986 in Mineola, New York. He was most widely known for his energetic blues harmonica style which frequently included vocal whoops and hollers, and imitations of trains and fox hunts.
His father, a farmer, taught him to play basic blues harp as a youth. He sustained injuries to his eyes at a young age which eventually prevented him from doing farm work himself. In order to earn a living Sonny was now forced to play music. He began playing in Shelby, North Carolina. After his father died he began playing with Piedmont-style guitarist Blind Boy Fuller. When Fuller died, he established a long-standing musical relationship with Brownie McGhee, and the pair recorded numerous tracks together. The duo became well-known, even among white audiences, as they joined the growing folk movement of the 1950s and '60s. This included collaborations with Woody Guthrie and Moses Asch, producing Folkways Records (now Smithsonian/Folkways) classic recordings.
In 1938 Sonny Terry was invited to play at Carnegie Hall for the first From Spirituals To Swing concert and later that year he recorded for the Library of Congress. In 1940 Sonny Terry recorded his first commercial sides.
Despite their fame as "pure" folk artists, in the 1940s, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee fronted a jump band combo with honking saxophone that was variously called Brownie McGhee and his Jook House Rockers or Sonny Terry and his Buckshot Five.
Terry was also in the 1947 original cast of the Broadway musical comedy Finian's Rainbow.
Album: 'Last Night Blues'
Outside of Blind Lemon Jefferson, Lightnin' Hopkins may be Texas's most distinctive and influential blues export. His easy, fluid fingerpicking and witty, extemporaneous storytelling are always a delight, and his performances on LAST NIGHT BLUES are no exception. The album is spare and acoustic, with Hopkins's voice and guitar accompanied by minimal percussion and Sonny Terry's harmonica.
Terry's contributions really add a lot to these tunes, threading a high, lonesome whine on the downtempo tunes and a chugging, propulsive shuffle on the faster ones. Hopkins is, of course, one of the kings of the blues boogie, but he's equally compelling on the slow blues, and he never missteps throughout this fine set. All told, this dynamite disc represents what the blues should be: stripped-down, soulful, and full of truth.
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