Lightnin’ finally strikes for blues icon
More than 60 years after hemade his first recordings, Houston’s Sam “Lightnin’ ” Hopkins will be honored this week by the Recording Academy, the organization that stages the annual Grammy Awards.
The late bluesman will be honored at an invitationonly ceremony Saturday in Los Angeles, then will be acknowledged Sunday during the 55th annual Grammy Awards telecast at the Staples Center. Along with music stars, pioneers and innovators such as the Temptations, Carole King, Charlie Haden, Glenn Gould, Patti Page and Ravi Shankar, Hopkins will receive the organization’s
Lifetime Achievement Award. The accolade is long overdue for the iconoclastic blues legend. Selfdescribed in some of his songs as “poor ol’ Lightnin’,” Hopkins for years failed to attract the same national attention as other 20th-century blues greats. He’s yet to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
But in his New York Times obituary for Hopkins, who died in 1982 at age 69, the late, great music critic Robert Palmer called him “perhaps the greatest single influence on rock guitar players.”
“What’s such a blessing to me is that even after all these years, this recognition he’s receiving is something he deserved,” said Bertha Kelly, one of Hopkins’ granddaughters. “To know there are people who appreciated his form of singing and playing, that’s why I’mso excited about this award.”
Eccentric style Hopkins’ influence can be heard not only in contemporary blues but in some jazz, soul, rock, folk and country as well. In a genre of rigid regional traditions, Hopkins was an anomaly with his laconic but expressive drawl and a unique feel for time. Whether playing electric or acoustic guitars, Hopkins’ sensibility on the instrument was singular.
He played fast and loose with the usual 12-bar blues format, his spidery fingers producing remarkable combinations of lead licks along with rhythm and bass.
“He played unpredictably quick lead runs while simultaneously keeping a train-like, behind-the-beat rhythm going underneath,” said guitar great Doyle Bramhall II, “in songs that capture the true nature of Texas folklore.”
The prickly, odd country quality of his blues may have been part of the reason Hopkins was slower to receive recognition than other players.
“The Chicago sound, Muddy Waters’ band, Howlin’Wolf and his band— those you could hear the direct link to rock ’n’ roll,” said blues historian Roger Wood, author of “Down in Houston: Bayou City Blues.” “You could hear them and easily understand how blues and rock were related.
“Lightnin’s personal choices and the style he played were so individualistic and eccentric. It’s possible they just didn’t register the same way. Those other guys had a bigger sound that was such an easy-glove fit with the classic rock sound.”
Hopkins also didn’t benefit from a career resurgence in his autumn years as Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker did. Both of those players made comeback recordings with younger musicians they had influenced. Hopkins had stopped recording years before esophageal cancer claimed him.
Another factor: His discography is something of a mess, due in part to his preference for being paid up front in cash for recording sessions. Business wasn’t Hopkins’ strong point. Thus his music is spread across numerous record labels— a few of them reputable, many now obsolete. He died without the assurance of a large company tending to his legacy.
Local, national impact Hopkins was born in Centerville in 1912. He received early tutoring from Blind Lemon Jefferson and Alger “Texas” Alexander, and began playing music as a child. Hopkins lived in Houston briefly in the 1930s and settled in the Third Ward permanently around 1946, which is when he made his first recording sessions in Los Angeles for the Aladdin label. A year later, he cut some of his most enduring work in Houston for Bill Quinn’s Gold Star Records.
The 1960s blues revival and its relationship to a burgeoning folkmusic clearly show part of Hopkins’ impact. Houston’s folk and coffee-house scene produced numerous players who’d go to see him perform, then take what they heard and create their own songs with Hopkins’ fingerprints all over them. Townes Van Zandt was perhaps the greatest Hopkins acolyte, but he wasn’t alone. Musicians such as Eric Taylor, Steve Earle and Ray Wylie Hubbard all recall the profound effect of seeing him play.
Hubbard says Hopkins’ “playing was perfection in taste and speed, and the beautiful anguish of his vocal is still haunting to this day.”
Musicians like Dusty Hill and Frank Beard of ZZ Top, or Rex “Wrecks” Bell, owner of the Old Quarter Acoustic Cafe, backed him up at performances.
Influenced generations Hopkins’ reach with these musicians was inestimable, and they in turn passed it along. In the liner notes to one of his albums, Lyle Lovett attributed a guitar lick in one of his songs to Taylor, as Taylor heard it played by Hopkins. Van Zandt was a mentor to a young Steve Earle, whose son, Justin Townes Earle, knows Hopkins’ discography intimately.
Outside of Houston, Hopkins still carries sway with discerning musicians. Eric Clapton is among his more prominent fans, as is the young guitar virtuoso Gary Clark Jr. Erykah Badu referenced Hopkins in a song’s lyrics. And Bramhall has Hopkins’ image tattooed on his forearm.
Historical marker As well regarded as Hopkins is in Houston — his visage appears on the logo for the Houston Blues Society— it nevertheless took tireless work by one fan, Eric Davis, to get Hopkins a Texas Historical Marker in 2010. (Crockett beat Houston in this regard, putting up a statue of Hopkins in 2002.) Prior to its placement at Dowling and Francis Streets, where Hopkins used to catch the city bus, the only monument tying Hopkins to Houston was his headstone at Forest Park Lawndale Cemetery.
Hopkins has garnered some notice since, particularly last year during his centennial. Rolling Stone included him in its 100 greatest guitarists issue, though its comment that he was “as unpredictable as John Lee Hooker” understates Hopkins’ cunning way with a song.
Hopkins still has family in Houston, including his cousin guitarist Milton Hopkins, who remains a lively traditional blues performer.
Granddaughter Kelly, 65, and three of her four children will attend the ceremonies this weekend. She said she gravitated toward gospel more than blues, “but we still have many, many good memories together.” Her son, Andre Kelly, plays piano because of Hopkins’ encouragement.
“Granddaddy is the one who asked me if there was anybody in the household that was playing,” Kelly said. “I told him no, and he said, ‘I want you to get an instrument in the house. Because music is in our bloodline.’ ”