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A
STATUE FOR LIGHTNIN'
by Bob Bowman | |
This
month, on the 20th anniversary of his death, blues singer Lightnin' Hopkins
will get the recognition that often eluded him in the land where he was born.
Once described by Texas Monthly as the state's best blues singer of the last
century, Hopkins will be immortalized January 30 with a statue on Crockett's
Camp Street, where he played as a kid and performed for tips in a barber shop
and feed store.
Despite his nickname, Hopkins didn't play faster than
other blues singers. Nor did he invent a new style, make a lot or money, or produce
a series of hits. "What he did was play country blues--raw as rotgut, real
as rent, and as heartbreaking and hilarious as the world around him," said
music writer John Ratliff.
Hopkins was born Sam Hopkins
at Centerville on March 15, 1902. When his father died, his mother moved the family
-- five brothers and sisters -- to Leona. At the age of eight, Hopkins made a
cigar-box guitar with chicken wire strings. By ten he was playing with his cousin,
Alger (Texas) Alexander, and Blind Lemon Jefferson, who encouraged
him. Hopkins got into trouble with the law and served time in the Houston County
Prison Farm in the 1930s, but soon returned to the blues-club circuit. In 1946
got his first big break in Los Angeles when he made a record with piano player
Wilson (Thunder) Smith. The combination led to the nickname of "Thunder
and Lightning".
Over his career, Lightnin' made records for
nearly 20 different record companies. In the l950s, he began working with legendary
producer Sam Chambers and his music began to reach a mainstream white audience.
He switched to an acoustic guitar and became a hit during the folk-blues revival
of the 1960s.
Hopkins played at Carnegie Hall with Pete Seger
and Joan Baez and toured with the American Folk Blues Festival.
By the end of the sixties he was opening for such bands as the Grateful Dead
and Jefferson Airplane. He also played before Queen Elizabeth in
a command performance and worked on the soundtrack for the movie Sounder.
But in the Texas Bible belt where he was born, Hopkins' music was seldom
appreciated, probably because he sang about women, fighting, gambling, and prison
life. He died in 1982 and was buried in Houston.
Hopkins rightful place
in East Texas history could have been overlooked if two cowboy musicians -- Guy
and Pipp Gillette of Crockett -- had not discovered that their grandfather
and father's lives were intertwined with Hopkins' career.
The Crockett
barber shop and feed store where Hopkins played was owned by Hoyt Porter,
the Gillette brothers¹ grandfather. Their father, Guy Gillette, was a former
Broadway actor and nationally known photographer who once shot Hopkins¹ picture
at Carnegie Hall.
The Gillette brothers -- who turned Porter's old store
into the Camp
Street Cafe where some of Texas' best cowboy and blues singers play weekend
gigs -- were fascinated by Hopkins' roots in East Texas, as well as his spontaneous
storytelling and his unpredictable guitar playing.
They persuaded the
Piney Woods Arts Association and Crockett businessmen to commission a statue of
Hopkins by Crockett artist Jim Jeffries.
On January 30, Hopkins'
daughter, Annie Mae Box of Crockett,
will join some of Texas¹ leading bluesmen in the dedication of a memorial to the
man who during his life was the walking embodiment of the blues.
Jan.
13-19, 2002
Published by permission.
Bob Bowman is a former president of the East Texas Historical Association
and the author of 24 books on East Texas history and folklore.
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