Lightnin' Hopkins

Deep Texas Blues

In this second DVD lesson devoted to the guitar playing of Lightnin' Hopkins, Ernie Hawkins dives into Lightnin's early catalogue from the Aladdin and Gold Star record labels. There was an amazing variety to Lightnin's early work. Listening to his early recordings we hear an artist at his prime. He effortlessly employing widely different rhythms, keys and tunings. The deeper we listen to these songs, the deeper our insight into what a master of Texas blues Lightnin' Hopkins really was.

Lightnin's style itself came along at the perfect time: the advent of the electric guitar. His style, strong rhythms punctuated by his flowing but compact lead linescreated a stinging and heart-tearing evocative sound. Lightnin's guitar style and technique worked great for both the acoustic or electrical guitars. The blues of Freddy King, Albert Collins, the Vaughn brothers, Billy Gibbons, testify to the power of this style. Lightnin' connects the generations of players, starting with Blind Lemon Jefferson, for whom he was lead-boy in the early 1920s. Standing tall at the center of the Texas Blues story is Lightnin' Hopkins.

In this double DVD set, Ernie Hawkins covers songs in unusual keys such as: drop D (Sugar Mama), in drop D but played in the key of A (Santa Fe Blues), in G (Bad Luck and Trouble), as well as in the usual blues in A, Come Back Baby and the country gospel Needed Time in the key of E. As a bonus, Ernie teaches his version of Lightnin's Hideway, the Freddy King tune coming back home to Lightnin'.

Ernie teaches phrase by phrase and then uses the split-screen so you can carefully study what each hand is doing. Detailed tab/music booklets are included as PDF files on both DVDs.

186 minutes
> Level 2/3
> Detailed tab/music PDF files on the DVDs