Customer Reviews

Lightnin

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if you looking for a great lightnin CD, this is a disc that can't be beat.

first off, the arhoolie label was started in houston by a guy who wanted to capture good old texas blues, particularly that of lightnin. so any disc on arhoolie is alomst guarenteed excellent (especially 'po lightnin').

i own about a dozen lightnin albums, and this one never ceases to delight, amuse, empathize, inspire, and reflect.

on this disc, its so easy to see that lightnin was a genuine poet of the blues, not a commercial recorder. great stuff...

As Lightnin' Hopkins' output for Arhoolie Records goes, this album is a lesser entry, but the fabulous Texas bluesman always seemed to be in good form for Chris Strachwitz's label, so all of it is worth having. These cuts are from a couple different sessions in the late '60s; the vast majority of tracks have Francis Clay on drums and one even has a full band. Again, fine, fine stuff, but there are a few too many remakes here. "Mojo Hand", "Rock Me Baby", "Hello Central", "Little and Low", "My Starter Won't Start This Morning", "Baby Please Don't Go", "Trouble in Mind": Lightnin's put all of these on record before, some of them many times. And he's not as inspired as on, say, the Arhoolie album "Texas Blues". Still, get this; it's still quite good and you could do a lot worse.