Product Review

When Lightnin' Hopkins tore it up, he tore it up good, as this collection of sessions from 1954 attests. "Hopkins' Sky Hop" alone is worth the price of admission, a delightful uptempo instrumental piece that walks the line between blues and rock & roll. At the other end of the tempo spectrum, there's "Sick Feelin' Blues," not to mention "Lightnin' Don't Feel Well," which has the pace of a slowly flowing river and the mood to match. Mood is one of the blues' greatest strengths, and it's something that Hopkins understood very well; there's real bitterness in "Don't Think 'Cause You're Pretty" and a reflective feeling to "Sittin' Down Thinkin'." These recordings were made between the two main peaks in Hopkins's popularity and so were relatively unknown at the time, but they're beyond a doubt worth hearing. --Genevieve Williams