Sam (Lightnin') Hopkins

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says about Sam Hopkins — and friend, this one deserves your full attention. Sam Hopkins came into this world in 1912, in Centerville, Leon County, Texas — the youngest of five children born to Abe and Frances Hopkins. Now being the youngest in a musical family can go one of two ways.

Some kids get left behind. Others get pulled forward by the sound itself. Sam got pulled forward.

He learned to play guitar from two of his older brothers, John Henry and Joel Hopkins. And if that foundation wasn't enough, Sam came up under the guidance of not one but two Texas blues pioneers — Alger, known as Texas Alexander, and the legendary Blind Lemon Jefferson. Whatever was in the air in Central Texas back then, Sam Hopkins was breathin' it deep.

For years he traveled throughout the South, movin' and playin', the way blues musicians did. But somewhere in the mid-1940s, Houston became home. Specifically the Third Ward.

Specifically the clubs on and around Dowling Street. That stretch of Houston became his territory, and he became its sound. Then came 1946 and a talent scout from Aladdin Records.

Hopkins was discovered — and I say that word the way the marker does, in quotation marks, because the man was already very much a known quantity to everyone who'd ever heard him play. Still, Aladdin sent him out to Los Angeles for his first recording sessions. It was there, during those sessions, that Sam Hopkins picked up a nickname: Lightnin'.

And it was there he cut his first hit record — a song called Katy Mae. He came back to Houston. And here's the thing about Lightnin' Hopkins that sets him apart — success in the studio didn't move him off the street corner.

He kept recording, this time for Gold Star, one of the earliest labels to put Houston blues on wax. And he kept showing up at dance parties, at Dowling Street establishments, at street corners. All of it.

A prolific man in every sense of the word. Through the 1950s he recorded and toured, though he rarely played outside of Texas during those years. Texas was enough.

Texas was everything. Then the 1960s arrived and brought a wave of new interest in folk and blues music. Suddenly Lightnin' Hopkins was performing for more integrated audiences — audiences that hadn't grown up in the Third Ward, audiences who were hearing something that stopped them cold.

He played Carnegie Hall in New York. More than once. By the time it was all said and done, Sam Lightnin' Hopkins had recorded approximately one hundred albums and more than six hundred songs.

Six hundred songs. Let that number settle. He died in 1982 and is buried at Forest Park Lawndale Cemetery in Houston — not far, really, from those Dowling Street clubs where so much of it happened.

The youngest of five. The one who learned from his brothers and then went out and became a legend. That's Lightnin' Hopkins.

What the marker says

African American blues singer and guitarist Sam Hopkins was born in Centerville, Leon County, Texas in 1912, the youngest of five children of Abe and Frances (Washington) Hopkins. Sam learned to play guitar from John Henry and Joel Hopkins, two of his older brothers, and began his musical career in Central Texas under the guidance of Texas blues pioneers Alger “Texas” Alexander and Blind Lemon Jefferson. Hopkins traveled throughout the south for many years but ultimately settled in Houston in the mid-1940s. He became a mainstay of Houston’s Third Ward music clubs, especially those located on and around Dowling Street. Hopkins was “discovered” by an Aladdin Records talent scout in 1946 and was sent to Los Angeles for his first recording sessions. It was during these sessions that Hopkins picked up the nickname “Lightnin’” and recorded his first hit record, “Katy Mae.” After returning to Houston, Hopkins recorded for Gold Star, one of the earliest labels to record blues in Houston. Despite recording success, Hopkins continued to play and sing at Houston dance parties, street corners, and Dowling Street establishments. He also continued to record and tour, although he rarely played outside of Texas during the 1950s. The popularity of folk and blues music of the 1960s brought additional attention to Hopkins, and he performed to more integrated audiences, including several performances at New York’s Carnegie Hall. After a prolific career that included approximately 100 recorded albums, and over 600 songs, Hopkins died in 1982; he is buried in Houston’s Forest Park Lawndale Cemetery.