Lightning Sam Hopkins, and his brother Joel squatty Hopkins were mentors and teachers to me. I miss them so muchly. Now that I'm sick and old with lung cancer. God bless the dead.

I literally cannot stop listening to the first song. One of the best songs I've ever heard

Stone cold blooded Master. A Hero of mine. Texas Legend

Thank GOD that some body had the mind to record and preserve this for future generations...and if it were not for you tube I would not know about a lot of this...

Can we just thank the man who invented the video camera ahha aha cause man this stuff is pure gold and this new generation don’t want nothing to do with this type of music. Didn’t even know this guy was from Houston and it makes me proud to have one of the best blues player from my part of town!

Im so addicted to listening to lightning that almost as soon as I wake up i here his licks and turnarounds in mind

Hello all you guys from the US of A. White guy from Birmingham England learned to play listening to his records aged about 12. I'm 65 now and realise how much I copied him.... from my first professional gig at the age of 14 and still do. God Bless !

The voice, the style, the heart. Never get tired of Lightnin'.

The funkiest, flashiest, coolest, heaviest bluesman

I miss music

I"ve been listening to this guy since I was about 16 years old (now 79) and have enjoyed him immensely. And I'm a white boy from the suburbs of Detroit. Have seen him in person several times in Ann Arbor an at festivals - it never gets old to me.

@5:32 ... that rhythmic double wack before kicking into the melody line. He had such groove. I can't say enough about the dude, to be honest.. Brilliance. Voice, persona, image, playing.. helps ease the ache a lot of the time.

His sense of rhythm and timing is simply impeccable

The man, the music, the legend, it's Lightnin', one of the very finest blues artists of all time! I love this guy!!👍💖🎸😎

I WAS DEPPRESSED ALL DAY TODAY.....BUT ..LIGHTIN HOPKINS DONE TOOK ME FOR A HAPPY BLUES RIDE..."NOBODY SINGS AND PLAYS GUITAR LIKE LIGHTIN HOPKINS.......AWESOME THANK YOU SO SO SO MUCH....MADE ME LAUGH AND SMILE....WHAT MELODY IS THIS FROM HEAVEN HE SINGS AND PLAYS ...GREAT TONE AND FEEL EMOTION AND TOTTALY MELODIC ....SATISFACTION GAURANTEED...ONE OF MY FAVORITES.........

"wIdely imitated style..."...? We have tried for decades 🤣We can't do it! Maybe someday..? Praise be to God. This man is the very best. We love you, Sam. 🌹

What a terrific guitar player and wonderful musician!

You can play me Symphony music Thelonious Monk jazz Satchmo you can play me Les Paul you can play me Jeff Beck you can play me Clapton Gilmore Townsend The Beatles on and on and on and on every single last one of them was touched by this man and his sounds as well as all other early Blues pioneers not just guitar players. So I just feel so enthralled when I see this in here this makes me so glad to be part of the human experience and also very glad I have playing the guitar for 40 years and everyday more fired up than the last. I said hey hey the blues is alright hey hey the blues is alright. Love me some Lightnin Hopkins hot damn! LOL

Not only is his blues technique incredible,his timing is perfect as well.Just a man,his voice,and his guitar.Unbelievable!

I need to keep the nails on my fretting as short as I can to play, that he can play, and so well, with those nails blows my mind. Great stuff here, Lightnin' is legend.

2007. I go to the food store and when I'm done with my grocery shopping I come to this isle that had cd's. So I see this cd that said "Lightnin Hopkins sings the blues". Thank God I found this cd !!! - It changed my life and kept me company for many months through the tough times !!!

My dear cousin a legend...Gone but not forgotten. May his soul rest in total peace!

Possibly the best musician in history.

Po lightnin really had them blues. Didn’t need a big orchestra behind him to play em either. Just good ole country blues. Man and his guitar singing straight from his heart bout what he feels. Legend

My favorite county blues singer guitar player. Great!

Lightnin' Hopkins. Just listen to that voice and guitar and let it seep down into your bones. Good Stuff!!

They asked Lightning, in an interview what guitar he liked to play. He said which everyone wasn't in hock. Lol. Hell he would make anything sound good.

Sam Lightning Hopkins took the blues to a whole new level and then some

The Man has a whole friggin band in his fingers. Amazing. Looks so deceptively simple, too....

This is country blues at its best prewar baby,acoustic blues the only way to go.

My youngest brother is sick with diabetes also has some lifelong serious struggles with schizophrenia. Unfortunately he's one of those stubborn types ... knows it all won't take advice ...THOUGH constantly asks for help. Very confusing in the mind this human dynamic. ⭐Because family is family and you got to care for those who are not as well off as you. This has overwhelmed me and giving me the serious Blues.! So having told that story I am happy to corroborate with many others that listening to this for the past many hours has really brought me back down to earth. Watched about 30 Lightnin Hopkins videos live concerts at cetera today this s*** is the real deal Blues is the Healer Blues is the Healer Blues is the Healer! Hallelujah love you lightning

That guitar is sitting somewhere unplayed and depressed. It looks so happy in this recording.

‘This guitar lives eternally...as she is heard every time this recording is playing. She communicates love and joy with whom all she is sharing. Forever full and spilling over with sweet soulful bliss.💜💪🏼

I love this guy Real Music. Real Soul.

This Gibson J50 guitar was the top of the line especialy for Texas folk, blues, and all-around Travelin' singer-songwriters from say 1955-1975, give or take. You'll see it used by young Steve Earle, Gillian Welch even today, along with many others. Mr. Lightnin' Hopkins shows how versatile he is strumming band finger-picking all up and down the strings to get the right sound. The pickup he is using was one of the better and affordable. I used a similar Dave LAWRENCE pickup with an old tube Fender amp for small auditorium performances and could connect a microphone and the guitar both. This is a priceless recording.

5:43 That chord and Stare!

for all people who love guitar and "real" music in general.... 2:49 to 3:08.....listen and watch closely....it'll do us all some good

only lightin can make a sweater look cool!! this is greatness

I can hear Lightnin’ Hopkins’s style when Nancy Wilson plays.

I've been looking for these shows for years! This and the Roscoe Holcomb are the only ones I'd ever seen so the Son House, John Lee etc. is all bonus. A big thank you for making these available. Maybe some of these people with a palate for bubblegum will accidentally run across some of these and acquire a taste for top shelf. Or not...

This is absolute gold. Thank you for sharing, and thanks to those who spent the time recording and cataloging this music. America couldn’t handle the beauty of the blues, so Europe took it and gave it its due.

A fabulous thank you for sharing such fabulous music 🎶🎸🎶🇺🇲☯️the blues is in my soul hopefully for ever🤸🏄

109 years ago Samuel John "Lightnin'" Hopkins was born on this day.. March 15, 1912. The day blues was born.. We respect all the blues greats but Lightnin' was one of a kind..

When i was a little kid playing acoustic guitar age 11..1/2 i played that style 1965 ..not knowing it was called blues ..but when i was 43 years old ..i heard a lighting Hopkins cassette and it blew my mind . ! i connected imediatly..i had never heard any one sign like ..Lightin...wow...amazing ...words can't describe his ultimate blues power...

Seeing Lightnin' live was mesmerizing. He made the blues seem effortless. He did like to drink to inebriation, though. He could barely sit on his stool and would usually fire one of his sidemen who never left. One who played the washboard was Cleveland Chenier who lived in Austin. Great to have film of Lightnin' playing live.

Lightnin' ! I first heard Lightnin' Hopkins before college when one of my broke friends found a wooden crate of records on the sidewalk...Lightnin' Strikes was in there...Thank you for posting this! It's been almost 20 years since I first heard him and it's amazing to see this footage.

My favorite part is when he's done playin' and he looks at the camera like WTF are you lookin' at?

I have heard of this man and his guitar playing many years ago. I think it was the song he played “make sure my grave is kept clean”. Thanks to KZfaq I discovered who he really is in late March 2021. Watching his hands move across the guitar you realize how good he is. Steve Moore

His hands are two presents that God offered to guitar.

I first learned of lighting in 1962. I have on record at least 3 of his albums. On one he plays elec. Guitar one album is his life story played and talked by him I like him but also sonny terry and brownie Magee i saw them close up in abar performance 1979 sonny is the best harp player ever

One of the best for sure...!!

has real communication to this music. just love it.

Texas has the best music.

This is awesome! Thank God somebody got this on film.

He is in top form here, i have listened to most of his recordings and this is as intense and spot on as it gets. Don't even think i have a CD with recordings THAT good and i have almost everything available.

All of the "FolkSeattle" performance were recorded at KTCS Public Television studios which was located on the Univ.of Washington campus in Seattle. The Seattle Folklore Society brought up all the great blues musicians from down south and staged concert in the Seattle area. These great musicians had second careers during the Folk-Blues revival of the 60's and early seventies. I was a concert promoter for the Folklore Society ( unpaid, of course) and was truly blessed to meet and learn the styles of the greats. Seeing black fingers on a guitar neck was a big thrill for us young white guys, and they were all willing to show us their guitar moves. I took promotional fliers to all the area media outlets. The black music station in Seattle, KYAC FM, was very hostile, and refused to promote these incredible performances. The audiences were largely hip college kids and local folkies and blues lovers. So it was young whites who saved the blues from oblivion; it's a source of sadness for me that young black kids are ignorant of their beautiful musical legacy,the Country Blues.

surely the damn coolest blues player ever...

My brain is foggy with the years but I remember a tale of how someone gave Lightnin a 12-string with dimes as tuning knobs. He said he never played it because it was too much trouble to tune. I spent the '60s in Houston, so Lightnin was a common sight at places like Liberty Hall.

Im so darn lucky 'cause I saw this man play when I was 21yrs old in a small hall in Queensland, Australia.....before he died, never seen any one born so deep into the blues & blew my mind... long time back, I'm glad you found the videos too,great.!!!!

Colder than a robot, hotter than a crockpot. Dude doesn't move his head for the first 4 minutes---what a disinterested badass.

there is something of pure magic about this man. can´t help it, it screams out of his being. I mean his soul.. his guitar skills, well let me put it this way, devil offered him to teach him cello but he said: "let poo´ Lighnin be.."

Hopkins' nimble dexterity made intricate boogie riffs seem easy, and his fascinating penchant for improvising lyrics to fit whatever situation might arise made him a beloved blues troubadour. Source: AllMusic

"Hors Concours" - Lightin' Hopkins is "The Best Legend" of the true "Rhythm an Blues".

Really great. Natural original talent.

Glad I came across this what a gem. Now I see Travis picking is really Lighting picking.

Townes Van Zandt loved the guy too.

So many people will listen to their Blues Rock and Heavy Metal and never realize it came from this. Damn shame.

The master at his best. 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼

Thanks for sharing! Lightnin' Hopkins is awesome...

I can listen to him AllDay. +++

My Bluesuncle inrtoduced me to the music of Lightning Sam when I was 18 years old. Hear was the start of my interest and playnig the bleus. Big Boy Arthur Crudup and a fifties album of BB King soon followed. How grateful I am to my blulesuncle, who himself was playing the blues for fourty years, till he got the guitarsickness.

When he plays, I can hear the guitar sing some lyrics.

What a treasure! Music is so mysterious. All power to those who can enjoy any genre. And in every genre there's always one song or more that just attaches to you.

Just had back surgery - hurt like hell. Listen to this and t he pain goes away!

My favorite Blues artist. Anyone that can have a trombone player in his band and it work has to be a ledgen.

Fingerstyle standard teachers are now mad with those TWO fingers doing all the work! Hopkins, you badass!

The Father of Texas Blues.

I love how Eryca Badu give him a shout out on one of her songs this guy was a Giant.

Sounds like 3 guitars at once. Bass , rhythm and lead.

Holy christ, that’s the ghost of guitar’s past.

Incredible style and delivery! Thanks.

THANK YOU for this! ♥ Sam is the best. Always in my heart.

He was the coolest cat who ever lived.

Um suing inacreditável sensacional!!!!🎸🎹♩🎶

A simple explanation of a very complicated and extremely talented man. The Texas blues encompassed in Sam John Hopkins. FolkSeattle thanks for the upload.

I would have given years off my life to have seen him play live.

Can’t stop listening this guy

They say that when you turned on a metronome around this guy it used him to keep time.

This music remenber my little cat Killa. My true love. R.I.P Killa

Just great. What a groove.

Oh what a man! Love that sound from the guitar, and they don't make men like that no more. 👍🥃

waou, j'adore ce Monsieur quel talent 😍 merci pour ce partage.

Lightin "the thumbs of war" Hopkins...

absolute master of the craft. Mild crime that more don't know him.

I discovered Lightnin Hopkins recently. All I have to say I wasn’t ready for Baby please don’t go in this take. I was prayin and cryin I swear Lord forgive me never have I had such an intense reaction to music. I even had to come say.

What a voice ....😍

Wow!!!! Makes me wonder if I'm from this time period. I love this❤

wow that was the coolest riff i ever heard

Great Post. Awesome music Thanks for sharing

Man this guy can play the guitar baby, I am delighted to listen and play my Harmonica to his sound, real delight, no i never heard of him and his play until now, but yeah I playing and jammin with my Mississippi Sax to this da sound.. yeap let it rip)))