Lightnin' Hopkins: His Life and Blues
In only the second biographical book on seminal blues guitarist-singer Hopkins (see Sarah Ann West, Deep Down Hard Blues, 1995), Govenar traces Hopkins’ long, twisting route to worldwide fame. Leaving home when still a child, Hopkins spent most of his life pursuing the sex-and-drinks-and-blues lifestyle that preceded the sex-and-drugs-and-rock-’n’-roll model, at least in the popular imagination. Apparently dubbed Lightnin’ at his 1946 first recording session, the moniker wasn’t, as oft-rumored, a tribute to his guitar stylings but made to go with session-mate Wilson Smith being called Thunder. Govenar finds that much else of what fans think they know about Hopkins doesn’t stand up to investigation, yet in pursuit of the truth via extensive interviews with family and friends, he turns up many nuggets as satisfying as the dispelled myths and inconsistencies. His detailed examination of how the delightfully cantankerous Hopkins rode the folk music craze of the early 1960s to rediscovery and a second, probably more remunerative recording career should be a cornerstone of blues-covering pop-music collections. --Mike Tribby