Lightnin' Hopkins News

Over the weekend, Rocks Off received some very encouraging news from Eric Davis, whose efforts to secure local blues legend Lightnin' Hopkins a long-overdue historical marker we wrote about a couple of weeks back .

Deer Tick's set Sunday night at Warehouse Live, opening for the lovely and photo-shy Neko Case, was the perfect capper to a weekend that saw us become sleep-challenged conspiracy hounds and road-weary travelers all within the span of a day.

Hunter's raucous thirteen-year, seven-night-a-week tenure there, which began in 1957, is the stuff of regional legend.

Both Rocks Off and our predecessor in the music editor's chair have written about what a travesty it is that there is no official marker honoring perhaps the most famous and influential musician to ever call Houston home, country-blues icon Sam "Lightnin'" Hopkins.

It seems every time Aftermath encounters Justin Townes Earle live, the guy has peeled another layer off himself revealing another astounding bit of his promise.

These rare early recordings of the great blues guitarist and singer Lightnin' Hopkins were recorded in Houston between 1947 - 1950 and remastered from acetates and 78 rpm records in the early 1990's. Capturing Hopkins in his purest form, mostly unaccompanied with just his wry voice and guitar, this makes for a fascinating listen.

Make the juice run down my leg. Wednesday, August 12, 2009 Kicking Mule In the folk and country blues revival of the 1960s he was listening to Broonzy, Brownie McGhee and Lightnin' Hopkins and beginning to collect old 78 rpm records from the 1920s and 1930s.

Joe Lewis is much smaller, more wiry and slippery than his near-namesake, America's iconic heavyweight champ.

Make all the Guitar Hero jokes you want. Whatever it is that's kept ZZ Top and Aerosmith in the public eye for almost four decades - video games or beards-n-babes videos, Back to the Future cameos or Michael Bay ballads, bee-stung lips or cheap sunglasses - they've never forgotten that eventually it all circles back around to the stage.

U.S. rock and roll royalty was in the Bluesfest house last night. Steve Earle returned to downtown London for the first time in many years, bringing the Bluesfest London crowd to its feet with stories, one-liners and plenty of beautiful blues.

Marquise Knox is a young blues artist who comes out of the St. Louis area. The guitar is his instrument of choice on which he says he can best express himself.