He is - with all apologies to ZZ Top, who would probably agree - Houston's greatest musical export. A man whose often simple country blues songs, laconic delivery and instantly identifiable guitar ...

R.E.M.'s “Lightnin’ Hopkins” isn’t a song about the musician of the same name. Although the title of the third track on side two of Document shares its moniker with Sam “Lightnin’” Hopkins, spotlights ...

Lightnin’ Hopkins embodied the blues. His singing, guitar playing, his physical appearance, personality, and demeanor, were the blues. One of the most recognizable bluesmen to come out of Texas, ...

More than 60 years after he made his first recordings, Houston's Sam "Lightnin' " Hopkins will be honored this week by the Recording Academy, the organization that stages the annual Grammy Awards. The ...

This article appears in the May/June 2015 “Blues Issue,” now available on newsstands. Listen, if you will, to the first 30 seconds of Lightnin’ Hopkins’ “Moanin’ Blues.” Listen to what happens when ...

Country, big band, R&B, blues and pop music all find their way into "Battleground Korea: Songs and Sounds of America's Forgotten War," a new anthology of music and spoken-word recordings from the ...

Did you know that Paste owns the world’s largest collection of live music recordings? It’s true! And what’s even crazier, it’s all free—hundreds of thousands of exclusive songs, concerts and videos ...

Texas blues singer/guitarist Sam "Lightnin'' Hopkins could lay claim to the authentic blues, having worked in the cotton fields for years. He turned electric in the 1950s, and toggled between acoustic ...