Alan Govenar
Page 37
“Trouble in Mind” Just a Memory (Canada) CD 0011
The Rising Sun Collection was released in 1996.
Note: This various artists CD also includes Louisiana Red, Brownie McGhee, and Sonny Terry.
Forever—Last Recordings
July 1, 1981. Live at the Rock House, Houston, TX.
Vocal/electric guitar with Larry Martin, bass/guitar; Andy McCobb, drums.
“Intro” Paris (French) LP 3368
“Watch Yourself” (1st version) Paris (French) LP 3368
“Houston Rock” Paris (French) LP 3368
“Baby Please Don’t Go” Paris (French) LP 3368
“Pa and Ma Hopkins” Paris (French) LP 3368
“Mojo Hand” Paris (French) LP 3368
“Don’t Let That Bad Sun Shine Down on Me” Paris (French) LP 3368
“Watch Yourself” (2nd version) Paris (French) LP 3368
“Rock Me Baby” Paris (French) LP 3368
“My Babe” Paris (French) LP 3368
“Trouble in Mind” Paris (French) LP 3368
Forever—Last Recordings was released in 1983.
Significant Early Reissues
Lightnin’ Hopkins Strums the Blues (Score) 1958
The first Hopkins album, this collects together some of the Aladdin material, with reverb added to the masters.
Last of the Great Blues Singers (Time) 1960
The first reissue of the Bob Shad/Sittin’ In With material, with reverb added to the masters.
Lightnin’ and the Blues (Herald 1012) 1960
Twelve of the Herald singles.
Lightning Hopkins Sings the Blues (Crown) c.1960
RPM/Modern singles.
Lightning Strikes Again (Dart 8000) 1961
The first reissue of the Gold Star material.
Early Recordings Vol. 1 (Arhoolie 2007) 1965
Early Recordings Vol. 2 (Arhoolie 2010) 1971
The first comprehensive reissues of the Gold Star material.
Endnotes
Introduction
1. Interview by Les Blank, Skip Gerson, John Lomax Jr., Audio outtakes from The Blues According to Lightnin’ Hopkins, Flower Films, 1969.
2. Interview outtakes from The Blues According to Lightnin’ Hopkins, 1969.
3. David Evans, The NPR Curious Listener’s Guide to Blues (Perigree/Penguin, 2005), pp. 124–125. For more information, see David Evans, “Musical Innovation in the Blues of Blind Lemon Jefferson,” Black Music Research Journal, Vol. 20, No. 1 (Spring 2000), pp. 83–116.
4. Jas Obrecht, ed., The Postwar Blues Guitarists: Rollin’ & Tumblin’, (San Francisco: Miller Freeman Books, 2000), p. 74.
5. www.hawkeyeherman.com/pdf/Lightnin-Hopkins-BluesLife.pdf.
6. Sam Swank, interview by Alan Govenar, September 30, 2008.
7. Cecil Harold, M.D., F.A.C.S. letter to Alan Govenar, February 16, 2008.
8. Bryan Wooley, “Birthing the Blues: East Texas provided plenty of material for Clyde Langford and others who sang of love, sex, drinking, prison, poverty and death,” Dallas Morning News, November 12, 2000.
1. Early Years
1. Ray Dawkins interview by Alan Govenar, March 14, 2008.
2. “Going Home Blues (Going Back and Talk to Mama),” an unissued Gold Star recording released on The Gold Star Sessions, Vol. 1, Arhoolie LP 2007 and Arhoolie CD 330.
3. Frances Jane Leathers, Through the Years: A Historical Sketch of Leon County and the Town of Oakwood, Privately printed, 1946.
4. W. D. Wood, A Partial Roster of the Officers and Men Raised in Leon County, Texas, Privately printed, 1899.
5. J. Y. Gates and H. B. Fox, A History of Leon County (Centerville: Leon County News, 1936).
6. “Texas Mob Lynches Slayer,” New York Times, April 6, 1910.
7. Handbook of Texas Online. www.tsha.utexas.edu/hanbook/online.
8. Gates and Fox.
9. Sam Hopkins, interview by Sam Charters, “My Family,” track from My Life in the Blues, Prestige LP 7370.
10. Ibid.
11. For more information on Abe Hopkins and the Hopkins family, see www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/–txhousto/biographies/hopkins_Lightnin.htm; Timothy J. O’Brien, “Sam Hopkins: Houston Bluesman, 1912–1960,” M.A. Thesis, University of Houston, 2006. O’Brien writes that Sam’s mother’s maiden name was Frances Washington. Ray Dawkins says her maiden name was Davis. However, the Leon County Web site about Lightnin’, the one that presents solid census research on Abe, says her maiden name was Frances Washington, but she is also listed as Frances Sims pre-1903, and speculates that she may have been married before Abe.
12. Thirteenth Census of the United States. Population Series: T635: 1828, p. 24.
13. Sam Hopkins interview by Sam Charters, “My Family,” track from My Life in the Blues, Prestige LP 7370.
14. Clyde Langford, interview by Alan Govenar, March 21, 2008.
15. Ibid., February 7, 2008.
16. Ibid., February 6, 2008. For more information on the practice through which African Americans were sentenced to forced labor, see Douglas A. Blackmon, Slavery By Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black People in America from the Civil to World War II (New York: Doubleday, 2008).
17. Sam Hopkins interview by Sam Charters, “My Family,” track from My Life in the Blues, Prestige LP 7370.
18. Ibid.
19. Lee Gabriel, April 1, 2000.
20. Ibid.
21. Ibid.
22. Ibid.
23. Ibid.
24. Lorine Washington interview by Alan Govenar, March 14, 2008.
25. Interview outtakes from The Blues According to Lightnin’ Hopkins, 1969.
26. Paul Oliver, Conversation with the Blues (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), p. 44.
27. Paul Oliver, Vocal Traditions on Race Records (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), pp. 25–26.
28. Henry Thomas (Ragtime Texas), Vocalion 1230, Chicago, June 13, 1928. Reissued on Mack McCormick, “Henry Thomas,” album notes and transcriptions, Herwin 209.
29. Clyde Langford interview by Alan Govenar, February 7, 2008.
30. Interview outtakes from The Blues According to Lightnin’ Hopkins, 1969.
31. Sam Hopkins interview by Sam Charters, “My Family,” track from My Life in the Blues, Prestige LP 7370.
32. Sam Hopkins, interview by Sam Charters, “I Learn About the Blues,” track from My Life in the Blues, Prestige LP 7370.
33. Interview outtakes from The Blues According to Lightnin’ Hopkins, 1969.
34. Mack McCormick, “A Conversation with Lightnin’ Hopkins, Part 1,” Jazz Journal 13, no. 11 (November 1960), pp. 22–24.
35. Over the years, Mary Allen College expanded its curriculum, but the school ultimately ceased operation in the late 1970s.
36. Blind Lemon Jefferson’s two religious songs were “I Want to Be Like Jesus in My Heart” and “All I Want is That Pure Religion,” Paramount 12386.
37. Laura Lippman, “Blind Lemon sang the Blues: Wortham man recalls his memories of musician,” Waco Tribune-Herald, June 2, June 2, 1982, 11A.
38. Sam Hopkins, interview by Sam Charters, “I Growed Up with the Blues,” track from My Life in the Blues, Prestige LP 7370.
39. For more information on Blind Lemon Jefferson, see Alan B. Govenar and Jay F. Brakefield, Deep Ellum and Central Track: Where the Black and White Worlds Converged (Denton: University of North Texas Press, 1998), pp. 61–85, and Black Music Research Journal, Vol. 20, No. 1, Spring 2000.
40. Interview outtakes from The Blues According to Lightnin’ Hopkins, 1969.
41. Ibid.
42. Ibid.
43. Mack McCormick, “A Conversation with Lightnin’ Hopkins, Part 2,” Jazz Journal 14, no. 1 (January 1961), p. 18.
44. Lightnin’ Hopkins, “Needed Time, RPM 359.
45. Lightnin’ Hopkins, “When the Saints Go Marching In,” Tradition LP 1040/77 “Jesus Won’t You Come by Here,” with Barbara Dane, Arhoolie LP 1022, “Jesus Won’t Yo
u Come by Here,” Vault LP 129, “I’ve Been ‘Buked (and Scorned)” AoF LP 241 (Davon LP 2015), “Prayin’ Ground Blues,” Sittin’ In With 599, “Devil is Watching You,” Vee-Jay LP 1044, “Sinner’s Prayer,” Bluesville LP 1061; (45) 822, “I’m Gonna Build Me a Heaven of My Own,” Prestige LP 7377. Lightnin’ also sang one verse of “Oh Mary, Don’t You Weep,” a song that was no doubt suggested by Pete Seeger on Folkways LP 2455.
46. Interview outtakes from The Blues According to Lightnin’ Hopkins, 1969.
47. Ibid.
48. Ray Dawkins, interview by Alan Govenar, March 14, 2008.
49. The Leon County Historical Book Survey Committee, History of Leon County, Texas (Dallas, Texas: Curtis Media Corporation, 1986).
50. Mabel Milton, interview by Alan Govenar, March 14, 2008.
51. Interview outtakes from The Blues According to Lightnin’ Hopkins, 1969.
52. Paul Oliver, Conversation with the Blues (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), p. 57.
53. Mack McCormick, Jazz Journal 13, no.11 (November 1960), p. 23.
54. Sam Hopkins, interview by Sam Charters, “They was Hard Times,” track from My Life in the Blues, Prestige LP 7370.
55. John Jackson and John Dee Holeman, interview by Alan Govenar, 1992 and Ed Pearl, interview by Alan Govenar, July 17, 2008.
56. Mack McCormick liner notes to the LP Country Blues, Tradition LP 1035.
57. For more information on the Leadbelly release legend, see Charles Wolfe and Kip Lornell, The Life and Legend of Leadbelly (New York: HarperCollins, 1992), pp. 85–87.
58. According to Anna Mae Box, Sam and Lightnin’ had a second child who was stillborn.
59. Anna Mae Box, interview by Alan Govenar, January 29, 2002. Census records spell Elamer as Almer but this is incorrect, as evidenced by the marriage license in the possession of Anna Mae Box. The census also recorded another child, Maxine, born to Sam Hopkins and Diamond Lacy on June 5, 1934. Some researchers have mistakenly maintained that Almer (sic) and Diamond Lacy were the same person, when in fact they were not. There was a Sam Hopkins listed in the Houston city directory from 1943 onward. However, this Sam Hopkins was living with Diaman (sic) and working as a “helper Mosher Steel Co—r. 1308 Bailey [4th Ward],” By 1949, Sam and Diamond had apparently separated as only Sam Hopkins “(no wife) driver Universal Term Warehouse—r. 3417 Live Oak [3rd Ward]” appears in the city directory. In 1951 this Sam Hopkins had the same listing and there was a separate one for “Hopkins, Mrs. Diamond—waiter Simon Ice House—r. 1308 Bailey.” In 1953, there were listings for Sam Hopkins (no wife), “Mrs. Diamond Hopkins—Paramount Laundry & Dry Cleaners—r. 1506 Victor,” and “Saml Hopkins (Gloria) musician—r. 2703 Gray Ave. [3rd Ward].” So, in what appears to be a bizarre coincidence, a black man named Sam Hopkins in Houston County (next to Leon County) married a woman named Diamond Lacy, had a child named Maxine in 1934, and moved to Houston’s Fourth Ward by 1943. By 1949, they were separated and this Sam Hopkins was living in the Third Ward, a couple of miles from the other Sam Hopkins. He had a steady job with the Universal Term Warehouse throughout the 1950s.
60. Sam Hopkins, interview by Sam Charters, “They was Hard Times,” track from My Life in the Blues, Prestige LP 7370, 1965.
61. Interview outtakes from The Blues According to Sam Hopkins, 1969.
62. Anna Mae Box, interview by Alan Govenar, January 29, 2002.
63. Ray Dawkins, interview by Alan Govenar, March 14, 2008 and July 17, 2008.
64. Ibid.
65. “Ida Mae,” Gold Star 613, recorded at Quinn Studio, Houston, 1947
66. Interview outtakes from The Blues According to Lightnin’ Hopkins, 1969.
67. Mack McCormick liner notes to the LP Smokes Like Lightning, Bluesville LP 1070.
68. Mack McCormick liner notes to the LP Country Blues, Tradition LP 1035.
2. Travels with Texas Alexander
1. For more information, see http://blog.negroleaguebaseball.com/negro_league_blog/2006/08/negro_league_or.html#more.
2. For more information, see Alan B. Govenar and Jay F. Brakefield, Deep Ellum and Central Track: Where the Black and White Worlds of Dallas Converged (Denton: University of North Texas Press, 1998).
3. Paul Oliver, liner notes to “Texas Alexander, 11 August 1927 to 15 November 1928,” Document MBCD-2001.
4. Oliver, Document MBCD-2001.
5. For more information, see Paul Oliver, Blues Off the Record (Kent, England: Baton Press, 1984); Texas Alexander, “Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order,” Volumes 1, 2, and 3, Document MDCD-2001, MDCD-2002, and MDCD-2003.
6. Sam Hopkins, interview by Sam Charters, “I Meet Texas Alexander,” track from My Life in the Blues, Prestige LP 7370.
7. Sam Hopkins, interview by Sam Charters, My Life in the Blues, Prestige LP 7370.
8. Hopkins, My Life in the Blues, Prestige LP 7370.
9. Hopkins, Prestige LP 7370.
10. Paul Oliver, liner notes to “Texas Alexander, 9 June 1930 to 1950,” Document MBCD-2003.
11. Mack McCormick, “A Conversation with Lightnin’ Hopkins,” Jazz Journal 13, no. 11 (November 1960), p. 23.
12. Hopkins, Prestige LP 7370.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. Frank Robinson, interview by Alan Govenar, January 29, 2002.
16. Helen Oakley Dance, Stormy Monday: The T-Bone Walker Story (New York: Da Capo, 1987), p. 96.
17. Alan Govenar, Texas Blues: The Rise of a Contemporary Sound (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2008), p. 416.
18. Mack McCormick, “A Conversation with Lightnin’ Hopkins,” Jazz Journal (January 1961), pp. 16–19.
3. The Move to Houston
1. www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/HH/jch4.html.
2. Beginning in 1893 the Texas Freeman was published by Charles N. Love, with the help of his wife Lilla, in issues of four pages, later expanded to ten or twelve. Love advocated the annulment of the Jim Crow laws, equal pay for black teachers, the hiring of black postal workers, and the Carnegie Library for Negroes in Houston, completed in 1912. A weekly paper known as the Houston Informer was published by C. F. Richardson, Sr., from 1919 until January 3, 1931, when the paper was acquired by attorney Carter W. Wesley and two business partners and merged with the Texas Freeman to form the Houston Informer and Texas Freeman. Wesley expanded the paper into a chain of Informer newspapers in Galveston, Beaumont, Dallas, and Austin, Texas, and New Orleans and Shreveport, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama, and circulated a statewide edition in small Texas towns, including Groesbeck and Crockett. The Informer acquired a printing company, employed fifteen hundred people at its peak, and is credited with starting many black writers in their careers. The paper was subsequently published as a weekly and semiweekly that changed its name alternately to the Informer and Informer and Texas Freeman. In the 1990s the paper was known as the Informer, was published and edited by George McElroy. For more information, see www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/HH/eeh11.html.
3. Alan Govenar, Texas Blues: The Rise of a Contemporary Sound (College Station: Texas A &M University Press, 2008), p. 245.
4. “El Dorado” is spelled as two words in the text instead of the more common “Eldorado” because it was always spelled as two words in the Informer during the early years of its existence.
5. www.artshound.com/venue/detail/58 and http://projectrowhouses.org/El Dorado-ballroom.
6. Lightnin’ Hopkins, Walkin’ This Road By Myself, Bluesville 1057.
7. Ted Williams, “Serenading the News,” Houston Informer, October 10, 1942.
8. Sam Hopkins, interview by Sam Charters, My Life in the Blues, Prestige LP 7370.
9. Interview outtakes from The Blues According to Lightnin’ Hopkins, 1969.
10. Clyde Langford, interview by Alan Govenar, September 30, 2008.
11. Mack McCormick, “A Conversation with Lightnin’ Hopkins, Part 3,” Jazz Journal 15, no. 2 (February 1961), p. 19.
12. �
��European Blues,” Gold Star 665-B.
13. Samuel Charters, Walking a Blues Road: A Blues Reader 1956–2004 (New York: Marion Boyars, 2004), p. 221.
14. Interview outtakes from The Blues According to Lightnin’ Hopkins, 1969.
15. Anna Mae Box, interview by Alan Govenar, January 29, 2002.
16. Interview outtakes from The Blues According to Lightnin’ Hopkins, 1969.
17. Ibid.
18. “Mrs. Lola Ann Cullum’s ‘Radio Aggregation’ Entertains at Glendale,” Houston Informer, September 14, 1940.
19. Mike Leadbitter, “Mrs. Cullen Rediscovered,” Blues Unlimited 46 (September 1967), pp. 7–8.
20. Johnny Brown, interview by Alan Govenar, July 22, 2008.
21. Ibid.
22. Ibid.
23. Sid Thompson, “Yer Nite Lifer,” Houston Informer, September 12, 1946.
24. Ibid., October 5, 1946.
25. Mike Leadbitter, “Mrs. Cullen Rediscovered,” Blues Unlimited 46 (September 1967), pp. 7–8.
26. Clyde Langford, interview by Alan Govenar, February 7, 2008.
27. Leadbitter, pp. 7–8. There was a comedy team named “Thunder and Lightnin’” (not Smith and Hopkins) that had worked as an opening act for Milton Larkin and his Harlem Swing-Apators performing at the “Big All-Colored Midnite Show” at the Majestic Theatre in Houston in September 1939. Nothing is known about this comedy team and whether or not the naming of Smith and Hopkins had anything to do with them. However, a black convict named “Lightnin’” at Darrington State Farm in Sandy Point, Texas, was recorded by the Lomaxes in 1933 and 1934. It was not Sam Hopkins; but it makes one wonder how common a nickname this was.
28. Frank X. Tolbert, “In Remembrance of Texas Bluesmen,” Dallas Morning News, March 1, 1982.
29. Doyle Bramhall, interview by Alan Govenar, December 4, 2008.
30. Ray Dawkins, interview by Alan Govenar, March 14, 2008.
31. Brown, July 22, 2008.
32. Ibid.
33. Peppermint Harris to Hank Davis, liner notes to “I Got Loaded,” Route 66 KIX 23.
34. Mack McCormick, quoted in Andrew Brown’s liner notes to “Harry Choates, Devil in the Bayou,” Bear Family BCD 16355 BH, 2002.
35. Advertisement for the “New Gulf Records,” Billboard, September 8, 1945.