''Lightnin' Hopkins'' (re-released as ''The Roots of Lightnin' Hopkins'') is an album by blues musician

Lightnin' Hopkins Samuel John "Lightnin" Hopkins (March 15, 1912 – January 30, 1982) was an American country blues singer, songwriter, guitarist and occasional pianist from Centerville, Texas. In 2010, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine ranked him No. 71 on its list o ...

, recorded in 1959 and released on the Folkways label.O'Brien, T. J
Lightnin' Album of the Week: Week 2 September 4, 2010
Lightninghopkins.wordpress.com, accessed November 7, 2018 The album was first released around the time that the book ''The Country Blues'' came out and was an instant success. It gave Hopkin's career a new lease on life.

Reception

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

reviewer Thom Owens stated: "Upon its initial release, it was a pivotal part of the blues revival and helped re-spark interest in Hopkins. Before it was recorded, the bluesman had disappeared from sight; after a great deal of searching, Sam Charters found Hopkins in a rented one-room apartment in Houston. Persuading Lightnin' with a bottle of gin, Charters convinced Hopkins to record ten songs in that room, using only one microphone. The resulting record was one of the greatest albums in Hopkins' catalog, a skeletal record that is absolutely naked in its loneliness and haunting in its despair. These unvarnished performances arguably capture the essence of Lightnin' Hopkins better than any of his other recordings, and it is certainly one of the landmarks of the late-'50s/early-'60s blues revival". ''

The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings ''The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings'' is an encyclopedia of blues music albums released on CD. Content The book was released on 31 October 2006 and was written by Tony Russell and Chris Smith with contributions by Neil Slaven, Ricky Russel ...

'' awarded the album three stars stating "'Exciting' may not be the word everyone would choose to describe this intimate, unplugged performance, but it was greeted on its original release with considerable enthusiasm, a response moulded by interpretation of the blues as folk music, suspicion of electric guitars, and other views current in the '50s and '60s among the sort of people who bought Folkways albums. It remains an estimable record".

Re-release

The album was released in the UK by

Verve Folkways Verve Forecast is a record label formed as a division of Verve Records to concentrate on pop, rock, and folk music. Founding Jerry Schoenbaum of Verve and Moe Asch of Folkways created Verve Folkways in 1964 to take advantage of the popularity ...

as VLP 5003 (mono) and SVLP 5003 (stereo) in 1965 as ''The Roots of Lightnin' Hopkins'' and re-released in 1972 by

Transatlantic Records Transatlantic Records was a British independent record label. The company was established in 1961, primarily as an importer of American folk, blues and jazz records by many of the artists who influenced the burgeoning British folk and blues boom ...

(XTRA 1127). In 1990, it was re-released on CD under the title ''Lightnin' Hopkins'' by Smithsonian/Folkways (SF 40019), and distributed by

Rounder Records Rounder Records is an independent record label founded in 1970 in Somerville, Massachusetts by Marian Leighton Levy, Ken Irwin, and Bill Nowlin. Focused on American roots music, Rounder's catalogue of more than 3000 titles includes records by Al ...

. The CD was produced by Matt Walters, remastered by Doug Sax and Alan Yoshida at The Mastering Lab in Hollywood, California, and printed in Canada. As cover design the original Folkways LP's artwork by

Ronald Clyne ''Ronald Clyne'' (1925–2006) was an American designer and graphic artist. He is best known for creating over 500 covers for Folkways Records between 1948 and 1986. Early career After beginning to draw at the age of 8, Clyne sold his first d ...

with a photograph taken by Samuel B. Charters was used. Charters also wrote the sleeve notes for the CD at the Mansfield Centre, Conn. 1990.

Track listing

All compositions by Sam "Lightnin'" Hopkins except where noted # "Penitentiary Blues" (Traditional) – 2:45 # "Bad Luck and Trouble" (Hopkins,

Mack McCormick Robert Burton "Mack" McCormick (August 3, 1930 – November 18, 2015) was an American musicologist and folklorist. Biography McCormick was born in 1930 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was brought up by his mother, in Alabama, Colorado, West V ...

) – 3:40 # "Come Go Home With Me" (Hopkins, McCormick) – 3:45 # "Trouble Stay 'Way from My Door" – 4:00 # "

See That My Grave Is Kept Clean "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" is a song recorded by American blues musician Blind Lemon Jefferson in two slightly differing versions in October 1927 and February 1928, that became "one of his most famous compositions". Son House used the melo ...

" (

Blind Lemon Jefferson Lemon Henry "Blind Lemon" Jefferson (September 24, 1893 – December 19, 1929)Some sources indicate Jefferson was born on October 26, 1894. was an American blues and gospel singer-songwriter and musician. He was one of the most popular blues sing ...

) – 2:05 # "Goin' Back to Florida" – 3:10 # "Reminiscenses of Blind Lemon" – 2:10 # "Fan It" – 2:40 # "Tell Me, Baby" – 2:30 # "She's Mine" – 4:10

Personnel

Performance

– guitar, vocals

Production

Samuel Charters Samuel Barclay Charters IV (August 1, 1929 – March 18, 2015) was an American music historian, writer, record producer, musician, and poet. He was a widely published author on the subjects of blues and jazz. He also wrote fiction. Overview Cha ...

–

supervision Supervision is an act or instance of directing, managing, or oversight. Etymology The English noun "supervision" derives from the two Latin words "super" (above) and "videre" (see, observe). Spelling The spelling is "Supervision" in Standard E ...

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

References

{{Authority control Lightnin' Hopkins albums 1959 albums Folkways Records albums