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Sunday, February 26, 2012

Sunday Morning Blues - Lightnin' Hopkins, Howlin' Wolf

Only two artists this week, each one gets their own disc in the ABC Of The Blues box set. While I like the idea of lots of music from one artist, given the immense number of blues artists that are out there, I'd have preferred if the box set kept closer to it's two artists/10 songs each format.

Volume 15 and 16:

Lightnin' Hopkins
Sam John Hopkins was born in Texas, and made his home base in Houston. He is considered one of the best blues guitarists ever, and is certainly the most prolific. His predominant styles are the talking blues, and country blues. He often worked without a backing band, especially in his early years, and developed a style that incorporated both lead, rhythm, bass, and percussion with his guitar playing. Early teachers and influences were Alger "Texas" Alexander, Frankie Lee Simmons (both distant cousins), and Blind Lemon Jefferson. He moved to Houston from Centerville in the early 40s with Alexander, but they failed to break into the music business, and they returned home. He tried again in 1946 and an LA record scout found him, signed him to Aladdin Records, and paired him with Wilson Smith. It was the record company that named him Lightnin' (And Wilson was named Thunder), as a marketing trick. He returned to Houston shortly after, and spent most of the 50s performing only in Texas. In the 60s and 70s he toured and recorded frequently, sometimes putting out two records a year. He also became heavily integrated into the Folk scene in America through Mack McCormick.

Hopkins' guitar playing is amazing, many of the songs are just him and his guitar, and you can hear him playing lead and rhythm both. His song subjects are an amazing range too, from the raunchy Play With Your Poodle to the gospel Needed Time. Between the two sits his blues standards. The recordings themselves here are clean and clear. The collection goes to span a decent amount of time, though it does seem to stick to music from the 50s and 60s - the older recordings. Given how prolific a writer he was, the twenty songs here barely even begin to cover his discography.

Howlin' Wolf
Chester Arthur Burnett, named after president Chester A Arthur, was born in Mississippi. His figure was imposing both musically and physically, standing at six feet six inches. His style was almost exclusively Chicago Blues, of which he was an important figure in the 1950s and 60s. Large and loud. Before that he learned to play from Charlie (or Charley) Patton back home in the delta. Charlie (considered the father of Delta Blues) also showed Wolf the showmanship guitar tricks he would do at shows. Wolf also had the distinction of being one of the few blues musicians to start out in the 30s that didn't die poor. It's also worth a note that Matt "Guitar" Murphy had to teach Wolf to play on-time to 12-bar blues as he frequently went off-time.

In contrast to Lightin's smooth style, Howlin' is loud and brash. His rough voice towers over the music, which is closer to rock than blues sometimes. Wolf leads with his voice as much as his guitar playing, which is just another instrument in the band, unlike many blues artists who are guitarists first. if you want some loud rockin' chicago blues then definitely go find some recordings from Howlin' Wolf.


Next Weeks Blues - Alberta Hunter, Ivory Joe Hunter, and Robert Johnson

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