[SYN-051]
Indisputably one of the greatest country bluesmen of the 20th century, Sam "Lightnin'" Hopkins (1912-1982) was a guitar wizard and one-of-a-kind storyteller. The first track on this album, "Big Black Cadillac Blues," cuts right to the core of his style: a long, rambling, hilarious spoken intro segues seamlessly into a captivating vocal melody, punctuated by guitar lines whose wit and natural grace are easy to feel but tough to emulate.

Hopkins' career was faltering by the dawn of the '60s. Then the folkies discovered him. For the rest of the decade, he was a top draw on the coffeehouse circuit. All the material on this disc dates from that period of resurrection, including several solo live tracks and three tunes — "Early in the Morning Blues," "I've Been 'Buked and Scorned," and "Brand New Car" — recorded during a loose series of Los Angeles sessions in July 1960 with fabled duo Sonny Terry (harmonica) and Brownie McGhee (guitar), plus guitarist Big Joe Williams. Rice Miller, a.k.a. Sonny Boy Williamson, plays harp on "Drinkin' In the Blues." "Rain," meanwhile, comes from a 1965 session with Earl Palmer on drums, Jimmy Bond on bass, and Joe "Streamline" Ewing on trombone(!); unusual instrumentation, certainly, but effective in its idiosyncratic way. — Mac Randall