Lightnin’ Hopkins — Mojo Hand

Incredibly, I only had one Lightnin’ Hopkins album prior to this, a CD titled “The Legacy of the Blues vol. 12,” that I bought back around 1990 or so at the lamented Records ‘n’ Such blues section. A few other stray songs appeared on other collections, but until I bought this at Forever Changes when he had an epic blues day at his popup shop in March of this year, that was it. Mostly, when I think of Lightnin’, I think “Lightnin’s been burning bad gasoline.”

This album, a gorgeous 180 gram limited edition of a 1962 release, is nearly all Lightnin’, doing guitar and vocals, even piano on one track. There’s a great new (to me) addition to my Christmas roster, “Santa,” a cover of the blues standard “Good Morning LIttle School Girl” (which I first knew as a Yardbirds song!) and a bunch of other great blues tracks. Super solid album!

And yes, I’m filing Lightnin’ Hopkins under ‘L,’ ’cause that’s where I’d look.