The Complete Aladdin Recordings (CD)

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.

• Category:  Music  »  Blues  »  Texas/W. Coast Blues
• Format: CD   Learn more about the CD format using Tower WIKI.
• Release Date: July 23, 1996
• Label: EMI Records (USA)
• UPC: 077779684328
• WAPI (Tower ID): 106718710
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• Tower.com Sales Rank: #36098 in Music (See Top 100 Music Bestsellers)
• #739 in Blues (See Top 100 Blues Bestsellers)
• #36 in Texas/W. Coast Blues (See Top 100 Texas/W. Coast Blues Bestsellers)

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Personnel includes: Lightnin' Hopkins (vocals, guitar); Wilson "Thunder" Smith (vocals, piano).

Recoded in Los Angeles, California & Houston, Texas in 1946-1948. Includes liner notes by Pete Welding.

Digitally remastered by Ron McMaster (Capitol Recording Studios, Hollywood,

California, September 1991).

THE COMPLETE ALADDIN RECORDINGS collects all 43 of Lightnin' Hopkins' tracks for Aladdin, a Los Angeles-based label that was the first to record the legendary Texas bluesman. One might be amazed at how fully developed Hopkins' art appears here, until one realizes that he was already 35 years old and a fully developed musician in 1947, when the first of these sessions took place. From the very first cut, the now standard "Katie May," Hopkins' confidence and mastery are apparent throughout this essential two-disc set.

Hopkins recorded four sessions for Aladdin, two with a small ensemble and two later sessions as a solo performer. The ensemble recordings, which fill the first half of the first disc, are raw, gritty, and sensual: in other words, rock & roll for adults. "Short Haired Woman" and "Let Me Play With Your Poodle" are among the highlights. The latter portion of this set features Hopkins alone, a setting that shows off both his guitar prowess and his haunting vocals. "Shotgun" and "Abeline" are among the R&B hits recorded at these sessions. This set is a must for blues devotees. Newcomers to the genre might prefer MOJO HAND, a career retrospective on Rhino Records.

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