Now available on iTunes out February 2011 BLUES LEGEND, a must have for the hardcore blues collector. This traditional blues album is the heart and soul of a blues guitar man out of Texas. Rolling Stone magazine has included Lightnin’ Hopkins at the number 71 slot on their list of the 100 greatest guitarist of all time.
He is credited with approximately 800-1000 original recorded songs, and was known to have put out two albums a year nearing 80-90 in total. Lightnin’ Hopkins has been gone 29 years, but since his death in 1982 at the age 69, nine albums have come out honoring his music. The guy was a music machine, if there ever was one.
The country blues man had a unique fingerstyle of playing the guitar. He would play bass, rhythm, lead and percussion and sing at the same time. He played both “alternating” and “monotonic” bass styles, at the same time he was creative with the turnarounds in which he could stretch out a single note lead line, while tapping the guitar or his leg for added rhythm.
His story is long and detailed, but growing up in the south his songs reflected problems of life in segregation, bad luck, bad luck in love, and all the things that a blues singer/song writer experiences in a lifetime. Sometimes he speaks the words of the song, as he tells his story. Hopkins didn't rehearse his songs; he lived them. He thought everyone should feel the music. He played guitar on a daily basis from the age of 8 on his home-made guitar, to when he went into the studio where he recorded whatever came into his mind. Thank goodness he recorded the music, because it is timeless traditional blues. If you are a blues aficionado, this album is a must have for the record. It’s enjoyable, laid-back, with a little added humor, and hopefully it will aid in keeping the blues alive in America.
If you ever make it to Crockett Texas, be sure to stop by and see the statue erected in his honor, commerating the legendary blues man Lightnin' Hopkins..
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