Lightnin' Hopkins

Lightnin' Hopkins recorded over a dozen songs for the Clarity Music Company at the "ACA" Recording Studio in Houston in April of 1969. These songs ranged from new originals, such as "Born In The Bottom", "December 7, 1941", "A Rainy Day In Houston", and "Stinking Foot", to oldies such as "Feel Like Ballin' The Jack", "Shake That Thing" and "Shinin' Moon". Since the 1970's some of these songs have been released on haphazard compilations with the bass and drums mixed too high, the guitar leads mixed too low, and excessive "reverb" in an attempt to make Lightnin' sound more contemporary. Now for the first time ever the original four track masters have been re-mixed without any of the extraneous studio misjudgments that marred previous releases. As an added bonus, previously unreleased recordings such as "Movin On Out When The Saints March In", "Old House Torn Down", "Mistrust My Baby And She Mistrust Me", and "Baby Please Don't Do Me Wrong" are included on this compendium of Lightnin' Hopkins gems. A large selection of never before seen photos, contracts, and documents rounds out this collection of rarities. The net result is 77 minutes of Lightnin' Hopkins in his prime "shootin' fire".

When you hear someone say "Texas Blues Guitar" you may immediately think of Stevie Ray and Jimmie Vaughn or maybe Freddie King. The invisible presence, buried deep in every one of their guitar riffs, is the true king of Texas blues, Lightnin' Hopkins. Lightnin', who knew Blind Lemon Jefferson as a child, is Jimmie Vaughn's favorite guitarist. Offered here are all the basics, many of the secrets and tricks of Lightnin's deeply accomplished, deceptively simple acoustic Texas boogie guitar style.

Aladdin Records, based in Los Angeles, was a very influential label in American music history. This is not the full story of Aladdin Records but it's a very good sampler of the label's output from 1947-1961. It's 50 tracks, 25 tracks on each of the 2CDs in the set, of very good R&B from the period. Each CD is about 60 minutes playing time. The sound is good for recordings of this era. Amos Milburn, Lightnin' Hopkins, Lowell Fulson, Louis Jordan, Charles Brown, Billie Holiday, Shirley & Lee, Gene & Eunic, Bobby Wall, Thurston Harris, The Velvetones and many more.