Before I go any place else, accolades to Turner Classic Movies for airing unknown documentaries like this for an audience who wouldn't even know they existed.
Between the heavy Southern black dialect and my own hard of hearing, I probably missed a good portion of what some of the commentators were talking about here, but that's not what I was tuning in for anyway. It's the blues, baby, and the setting is Porter Houston's Barbecue in Texas, 1967. Center stage is guitarist Lightnin' Hopkins, expounding on his brand of music and doing an even better job of showing how it's done. The picture also includes a handful of other local musicians, none of which are named or introduced, so that had me at a disadvantage. One of them was a tortured harmonica dude that wound up writhing on the ground, I just didn't know what to make of that, maybe a severe case of the blues.
A couple of real interesting elements though. The black pig and the judge story, as told by Hopkins, was a real treat. The guy with the washboard vest playing with Lightnin' made me wonder why the concept hadn't gone any further. Maybe it has and I'm just not aware of it.
For blues fans, this is a trip in the way-back machine that's worth the ride. Problem is, you'll probably have to wait for your own Lightnin' strike to catch it on Turner Classics or some other musical venue.
Between the heavy Southern black dialect and my own hard of hearing, I probably missed a good portion of what some of the commentators were talking about here, but that's not what I was tuning in for anyway. It's the blues, baby, and the setting is Porter Houston's Barbecue in Texas, 1967. Center stage is guitarist Lightnin' Hopkins, expounding on his brand of music and doing an even better job of showing how it's done. The picture also includes a handful of other local musicians, none of which are named or introduced, so that had me at a disadvantage. One of them was a tortured harmonica dude that wound up writhing on the ground, I just didn't know what to make of that, maybe a severe case of the blues.
A couple of real interesting elements though. The black pig and the judge story, as told by Hopkins, was a real treat. The guy with the washboard vest playing with Lightnin' made me wonder why the concept hadn't gone any further. Maybe it has and I'm just not aware of it.
For blues fans, this is a trip in the way-back machine that's worth the ride. Problem is, you'll probably have to wait for your own Lightnin' strike to catch it on Turner Classics or some other musical venue.