Lightnin' Hopkins: Lightnin' Strikes (Verve Acoustic Sounds series) [VERVE]

Why you'll love it

This Acoustic Sounds series edition is an all-analog master by Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab, on 180g vinyl in a tip-on gatefold jacket. Hopkins wrote all nine songs, from "Mojo Hand" to "Hurricane Betsy."

This edition

• Verve Acoustic Sounds series
• All-analog mastering by Matthew Lutthans
• 180g vinyl
• Tip-on gatefold jacket
• Remastered
• Stereo mix

About the album

Lightnin' Hopkins learned the blues at the age of eight, after meeting Blind Lemon Jefferson at a church picnic in Texas, and he spent the rest of his life turning everyday events into songs. In October 1965 he went into a Los Angeles studio with producer Dave Hubert and a band, plugged in, and did just that. Over two days, October 4 and 5, they cut nine songs, every one of them his own.

Session great Earl Palmer sits in with bassist Jimmy Bond and harmonica player Don Crawford. "Mojo Hand" struts, "Cotton" and "Take Me Back, Baby" are pure Houston groove, "Hurricane Betsy" turns that year's storm into a story. "Really Nothin' But the Blues" and "Shake Yourself" swing loose and easy.

Verve Folkways put it out in 1966, and it has turned up since under another name, Nothin' But the Blues. One of the nine is called "Guitar Lightnin'," in case anyone in the room was unsure who was in charge.

Also at Kops: more Lightnin' Hopkins on vinyl · browse Blues

Tracklist

Listen

On Verve Folkways / Verve (cat# FVS-9022), a reissue of the 1966 album.