Blues Vocalist - Lightnin' Hopkins

Those people over at Cox Cable, where I get my internet connection from are trying to give me the blues. As I post to my blogs this evening, I keep losing my connection. Thank God for auto save, or I would have lost a lot more of my work.

Yeah, I got the "keep losing my internet connection" blues. And another thing that is making me blue is wanting to post this video clip of Lightin' Hopkins talking about what the blues is, man I show (that is the way we used to say it) do wish I could show it to you.

But that is OK, see my intentions in this post are to explain how I think that Lightin' Hopkins was one of the best blues vocalist of all times. I really like his ability to make up a song on the fly. And that is really hard to do. But the man's mind was just that nimble. Of course he was a master guitar player too, but his voice to me is the voice of the bluesmen of my dreams.

I think the Wikipedia entry on Lightnin' Hopkins says it better;

Much of Hopkins' music follows the standard 12-bar blues template but his phrasing was very free and loose. Many of his songs were in the talking blues style, but he was a powerful and confident singer. Lyrically his songs chronicled the problems of life in the segregated south, bad luck in love and all the usual subjects of the blues idiom. He did however deal with these subjects with humor and good nature. Many of his songs are filled with double entendres and he was known for his humorous introductions.

It's that whole "problems of life idiom" thing that I like to hear expressed by a blues vocalist, and is why I like Lightnin' Hopkins so much.

I have posted several other post about Lightin' you can view them here.

Sam Lightnin' Hopkins - Cotton


Other Blogs with Lightnin' Hopkins post

Blues Calendar Blues - Lightnin' Hopkins @ Licorice Pizza. There are four mp3s in this post and a very nice write up as well.

Lightnin’ Hopkins | Walking Around in Circles (from Lightnin’ Strikes) mp3 @ So Much Silence blog. Love the sound of this.

Long Gone Like A Turkey Through The Corn mp3 @ snhu's Live Journal. There he goes with his long pjs on.

Happy New Year mp3 @ Buffalo West Music blog.

Gone Fishin @ Boogie Woogie Flu blog. This post has two mp3s.

Chris Goes Rock: Lighting' Hopkins Strikes