I'm personally fond of the blues and in the past two years have begun to dig deeper into the genre. Before I examined the genre more closely I was aware of the obvious modern blues staples such as Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, George Thorogood and even recent developers like the White Stripes and the Black Keys but beyond that had little idea of who was who in the vastly influential field. Then I got acquainted with people like John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters who turned the old, folk-oriented, delta blues of people like Robert Johnson into the more familiar sounding, electrified style of blues we all know today. One of the names I discovered in that group of blues musicians around in that liminal time between delta/folk-forms of blues and electric blues was Sam "lighning" Hopkins. He was born in 1912 and was schooled in both old and new-school blues and was one of the many who helped bring the genre squarely into the 20th century while retaining all the old traditions that make it uniquely American in origin. Sadly, I only found out about Hopkins when I moved to Houston, his home city, but ever since then I've really learned to admire the man and marvel at his playing abilities. Here's an example of his playing genius:
Well, at any rate, in addition to the statue that Houston erected in his honor the city is now planning to place an official state historic marker on Hopkins' house. This makes me very happy because I'm sure it'll only lead to more people stumbling across his name and discovering his awesome music.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment