Blues from the Street

Lightnin’ Hopkins is captured on film in 1960 playing on the sidewalk in Houston.

In 1959, Ligntnin’ Hopkins was contacted by folklorist Mack McCormick who hoped to bring him to the attention of the broader musical audience of the folk revival. McCormack presented Hopkins to integrated audiences first in Houston and then in California. He debuted at Carnegie Hall on October 14, 1960, appearing alongside Joan Baez and Pete Seeger performing the spiritual “Mary Don’t You Weep”. In 1960, he signed to Tradition Records. The recordings which followed included his hit song of 1960 “Mojo Hand.”

Robert “Mack” McCormick said of him, “Hopkins is the embodiment of the jazz-and-poetry spirit, representing its ancient form in the single creator whose words and music are one act”.

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