Dear John
It's mister Hopkins' birthday this week. One of the most influential country Blues artists ever.
Well, Blues Blast '18 is in the can and '19 is in preparation. It was a helluva day with some stellar sets turned in by all artists on the bill.
Nina, Dan, Smokestack, Cold Shott, Big Pete, Shari Puorto and Andy T and crew all just laid it all out and the place rocked. We were treated to an appearance by the inimitable Kim Wilson of T-bird fame. He added some tasty licks on his world famous harp to Andy T's band. Mighty proud to have one of my heroes on our stage. Hell, they are all my heroes. Thanks guys!!
The Jim Glass Memorial is this Sunday at the RR. Let's all turn out and send Jim off in a manner befitting a true Bluesman. Downbeat at 2 p.m.
See you there.
Have a week!!
Sincerely,
Jim Crawford PBS
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Lightnin"
by Bill Dahl Sam Hopkins was a Texas country bluesman of the highest caliber whose career began in the 1920s and stretched all the way into the 1980s. Along the way, Hopkins watched the genre change remarkably, but he never appreciably altered his mournful Lone Star sound, which translated onto both acoustic and electric guitar. Hopkins' nimble dexterity made intricate boogie riffs seem easy, and his fascinating penchant for improvising lyrics to fit whatever situation might arise made him a beloved blues troubadour. Hopkins' brothers John Henry and Joel were also talented bluesmen, but it was Sam who became a star. In 1920, he met the legendary Blind Lemon Jefferson at a social function, and even got a chance to play with him. Later, Hopkins served as Jefferson's guide. In his teens, Hopkins began working with another pre-war great, singer Texas Alexander, who was his cousin. A mid-'30s stretch in Houston's County Prison Farm for the young guitarist interrupted their partnership for a time, but when he was freed, Hopkins hooked back up with the older bluesman. The pair was dishing out their lowdown brand of blues in Houston's Third Ward in 1946 when talent scout Lola Anne Cullum came across them. She had already engineered a pact with Los Angeles-based Aladdin Records for another of her charges, pianist Amos Milburn, and Cullum saw the same sort of opportunity within Hopkins' dusty country blues. Alexander wasn't part of the deal; instead, Cullum paired Hopkins with pianist Wilson "Thunder" Smith, sensibly re-christened the guitarist "Lightnin'," and presto! Hopkins was very soon an Aladdin recording artist. "Katie May," cut on November 9, 1946, in L.A. with Smith lending a hand on the 88s, was Lightnin' Hopkins' first regional seller of note. He recorded prolifically for Aladdin in both L.A. and Houston into 1948, scoring a national R&B hit for the firm with his "Shotgun Blues." "Short Haired Woman," "Abilene," and "Big Mama Jump," among many Aladdin gems, were evocative Texas blues rooted in an earlier era. A load of other labels recorded the wily Hopkins after that, both in a solo context and with a small rhythm section: Modern/RPM (his uncompromising "Tim Moore's Farm" was an R&B hit in 1949); Gold Star (where he hit with "T-Model Blues" that same year); Sittin' in With ("Give Me Central 209" and "Coffee Blues" were national chart entries in 1952) and its Jax subsidiary; the major labels Mercury and Decca; and, in 1954, a remarkable batch of sides for Herald where Hopkins played blistering electric guitar on a series of blasting rockers ("Lightnin's Boogie," "Lightnin's Special," and the amazing "Hopkins' Sky Hop") in front of drummer Ben Turner and bassist Donald Cooks (who must have had bleeding fingers, so torrid were some of the tempos). But Hopkins' style was apparently too rustic and old-fashioned for the new generation of rock & roll enthusiasts (they should have checked out "Hopkins' Sky Hop"). He was back on the Houston scene by 1959, largely forgotten. Fortunately, folklorist Mack McCormick rediscovered the guitarist, who was dusted off and presented as a folk-blues artist; a role that Hopkins was born to play. Pioneering musicologist Sam Charters produced Hopkins in a solo context for Folkways Records that same year, cutting an entire LP, Lightnin' Hopkins, in Hopkins' tiny apartment (on a borrowed guitar). The results helped introduced his music to an entirely new audience. Hopkins generally demanded full payment before he'd deign to sit down and record, and seldom indulged a producer's desire for more than one take of any song. His singular sense of country time befuddled more than a few unseasoned musicians; from the 1960s on, his solo work is usually preferable to band-backed material. Lightnin' was ornery, stubborn, flashy, and capable of great inspiration followed by obstinate and calculated destruction. In thirty years of recording, he created a body of work as wide, deep, and maddening as anyone's in American music history: some five hundred songs, or maybe six hundred, or maybe seven hundred. Nobody knows, because Lightnin' would record for anyone who waved a $50 bill at him. He might play and sing something fierce and new, but just as likely he'd redo a song he'd done the day before, changing a line or two because he felt like it. Or he'd record a song by one of his peers and call it his own. Ultimately, the words didn't matter. It was the sound of his voice-a deep drawl that was so lonely and sad it seemed to come from another existence-and his loping, finger-picking guitar style, which sounded like the rolling, rough cotton country between the Brazos and Trinity rivers where he was raised.Lightnin' Hopkins went from gigging at back-alley gin joints to starring at collegiate coffeehouses, appearing on TV programs, and touring Europe to boot. His once-flagging recording career went right through the roof, with albums for World Pacific; Vee-Jay; Bluesville; Bobby Robinson's Fire label (where he cut his classic "Mojo Hand" in 1960); Candid; Arhoolie; Prestige; Verve; and, in 1965, the first of several LPs for Stan Lewis' Shreveport-based Jewel logo. By the time he died, in 1982, he had become one of the great bluesmen, up there with Blind Lemon Jefferson, Robert Johnson, and Muddy Waters. But no one knew a whole lot about him, beyond the fact that he was from East Texas, that he spent most of his life living alone in small rooms in dingy apartments in Houston's Third Ward, that he gambled much of his money away, that he often performed and recorded on borrowed guitars, and that he seemed to have a hard time staying in tune. Part of that was his own doing: Lightnin' told colorful stories about his past, and as he got older he amplified his Po' Lightnin' persona, a guy always mistreated by women and misunderstood and abused by everyone else. Part of it was the mythmaking of fans who saw him as the epitome of the blues: the guy with the shades, gold teeth, unlit cigar, and half-pint of whiskey or gin in his back pocket.To find the real Lightnin', you have to first go back and listen to his amazing catalog of songs. You have to find the liner notes from long-out-of-print albums and the interviews he did when he was "discovered" by white people almost fifty years ago. You have to talk to the people who knew him, chauffeured him, produced him, played with him, and tried desperately to keep up with him. The picture they paint isn't always pretty, but the real blues seldom are. |
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| Out & About Tuesday, March 13 Wednesday, March 14 Carvin Jones, 6 p.m., Four Points, Mesa Bad News Blues Band, Every Wed., 9:30 p.m., Chicago Bar, Tucson Thursday, March 15 Hans Olson (EVERY THURSDAY), 6 p.m., Handlebar(NO SHOW THIS WEEK), Apache Junction Arizona Blues Project, 8 p.m., Harold's, Cave Creek Friday, March 16 Zac Harman, 9 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix Chuck Hall (acoustic), 4 p.m., Carefree FineArt & Wine Festival, Downtown Carefree JC & the Juke rockers, 7 p.m., Handlebar, Apache Junction Hoodoo Casters, 6 p.m., Desert Eagle Brewing Co., Mesa Blues Review Band, 10 a.m., Stagecoach Village Arts Festival, Cave Creek Blues Review Band, 8 p.m., Hangar 9, Chandler Outback Blues Band, 4 p.m., KOA Clubhouse, Salome Carvin Jones, 69 p.m., Rumors. Surprise Paris James, 6:30 p.m., D'Vine Wine, Mesa Saturday, March 17 Repeat Offenders (early show), 6 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix Soul Power Band, 9 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix Chuck Hall (acoustic), 4 p.m., Carefree FineArt & Wine Festival, Downtown Carefree JC & the Juke Rockers, 6:30 p.m., Max's, Glendale
Sweet Baby Ray's Blue Smoke, 3 p.m., Spring Heritage Pecan Wine Fest, Camp Verde
Leon J & Juke Joint, 4 p.m., Mountain View Pub, Cave Creek Blues Review Band, 10 a.m., Stagecoach Village Arts Festival, Cave Creek Blues Review Band, 8 p.m., Culinary Dropout, Scottsdale Mike Morrow & the Blue Souleros, 8 p.m., West Alley BBQ, Chandler Outback Blues Band, 4:30 p.m., 33rd Annual Poker Run, Parker Carvin Jones, 5 p.m. and 9 p.m., Murphy's Law, Chandler Paris James, 6:30 p.m., D'Vine Wine, Chandler Front Page Blues Band, 7 p.m., Eagle's Nest Lounge, Prescott Mother Road Trio, 6 p.m., Toasted Owl, Flagstaff Sunday, March 18 Jim Glass Memorial, 2 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix Rocket 88s BLUES JAM, 3 p.m., Steel Horse, Phoenix Blues Review Band, 10 a.m., Stagecoach Village Arts Festival, Cave Creek Chuck Hall (acoustic), 4 p.m., Carefree FineArt & Wine Festival, Downtown Carefree Carvin Jones, 6 p.m., Desert Eagle Brewing Co., Mesa True Flavor Blues, NOON , Copper Star, Phoenix Monday, March 19 |
Weekly Jams
Sunday
Bourbon Jack's JAM w/Kody Herring, 6 p.m., Chandler
NEW JAM! Sir Harrison, every other Sunday, The Windsock, Prescott
MONDAY
Bam Bam & Badness Open JAM, 9 p.m., Char's, Phoenix
Weatherford Hotel JAM, 6:30 p.m., Flagstaff
TUESDAY JAM Sir Harrison, 9 p.m., Char's, Phoenix
Rocket 88s, 6 p.m., The Last Stop (Old Hideaway West), Phoenix
Gypsy's Bluesday Night JAM, 7 p.m. Pho Cao, Tempe
Tailgaters JAM, 7 p.m., Glendale
WEDNESDAY Rocket 88s, 7 p.m., Chopper John's, Phoenix Tool Shed JAM Party, 7 p.m., Draw 10, Phoenix
Bumpin' Bud's 2nd & 4th Saturdays JAM, 7 p.m., Marc's, Glendale
THURSDAY Tool Shed JAM Party, 7 p.m., Steel Horse Saloon, Phoenix Jolie's Place JAM w/Adrenaline, 9 p.m., Chandler Brad's Place JAM, 7 p.m., Ahwatukee (Every other Week)
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