Last Night Blues

Performer: Lightnin' Hopkins
Engineer: Rudy Van Gelder
Producer: The Sound Of America
Distributor: Fantasy (distributor)

Notes: Personnel: Lightnin' Hopkins; Sonny Terry (vocals, guitar), Leonard Gaskin (bass); Belton Evans (drums). Recorded in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey on October 26, 1960. Includes original release liner notes by Mack McCormick. All tracks have been digitally remastered. Outside of Blind Lemon Jefferson, Lightnin' Hopkins may be Texas's most distinctive and influential blues export. His easy, fluid fingerpicking and witty, extemporaneous storytelling are always a delight, and his performances on LAST NIGHT BLUES are no exception. The album is spare and acoustic, with Hopkins's voice and guitar accompanied by minimal percussion and Sonny Terry's harmonica. Terry's contributions really add a lot to these tunes, threading a high, lonesome whine on the downtempo tunes and a chugging, propulsive shuffle on the faster ones. Hopkins is, of course, one of the kings of the blues boogie, but he's equally compelling on the slow blues, and he never missteps throughout this fine set. All told, this dynamite disc represents what the blues should be: stripped-down, soulful, and full of truth.

Living Blues (Jan/Feb 93, pp.84-85) - "...there's a relaxed intimacy and trust here born of musicians sharing a similar vision and experience in the blues....lyrically, Hopkins' ability to poetically improvise without noticeable limits keeps each song interesting..."

Some artists are influential because so many followers try to imitate them; others are influential precisely because they cannot be imitated. Lightnin' Hopkins was of the latter variety. With a career that stretched from the 1920s through the '70s, the Texas bluesman was a genre unto himself, a deft guitarist equally at home in a quiet solo performance or fronting an electrified boogie band. He was a free-associating poet who made up entire songs on the spot, and a leathery-voiced singer whose vocals simultaneously communicated a lifetime of misery and an endless reserve of self-confidence.

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