Lightnin’ Hopkins – Blues In My Bottle
Houston-based smokey-voiced Sam “Lightnin’” Hopkins (1912-1982) collected 11 solo songs recorded at ACA (Gold Star Studios) in Houston, TX in 1961 for Blues In My Bottle (Dropped April 3/Craft/Concord/Prestige Bluesville/39:27) produced by Kenneth S. Goldstein & Mack McCormick. It features Hopkins’ distinctive fingerstyle guitar & country blues, free & loose vocals on originals, traditional & covers. Despite the recording’s age, the sound is pristine.
Lightnin’ has fun with the upbeat “Wine Spodee-o-dee,” a song rocker Jerry Lee Lewis turned into a late-career hit a decade later. Hopkins’ acoustic guitar picking is relentless. Some blues singers have dominating voices, pleading vocals & raw voices, but Lightnin’ Hopkins always had a wise man’s approach to his material. This is not the flash-in-the-pan blues of modern-day players. The subjects are closer to home, the experiences are personal, the jobs he had (on the railroad), his prison stay, the decision not to fly anymore (his mother’s fears) & death.
An upbeat excursion with the horse races on “Goin’ To Dallas To See My Pony Run,” which doesn’t have negative connotations or reasons to be bluesy. Lightnin’ sings it with enthusiasm, with some invigorating playing & strumming. He turns a day at the races into a viable blues tune based solely on his performance & not because the song is a downer, it’s not.
“Jailhouse Blues” is gritty, raw & performed well, but it’s not the old Bessie Smith tune from the 1920’s. “Blues In My Bottle” is pure blues about a poor soul’s woman out with another man & all he has is his bottle. The type of old blues bands like Canned Heat & Savoy Brown should have covered this one. There’s a loneliness that runs through the words, but the superb guitar work suggests maybe the man doesn’t realize he’s better off.
Performing since the 1920’s, he became most active in 1946 & it’s believed that Lightnin’ Hopkins recorded more blues albums than any other blues performer.
Highlights – “Buddy Brown’s Blues,” “Wine Spodee-o-dee,” “DC-7,” “Death Bells,” “Goin’ To Dallas To See My Pony Run,” “Jailhouse Blues” & “Blues In My Bottle.”
CD @ Discogs & https://lightninhopkins.bandcamp.com/album/blues-in-my-bottle-remastered-2026