View source for Early Recordings (Lightnin' Hopkins album)

{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2021}}
{{Infobox album
| name       = Early Recordings
| type       = compilation
| artist     = [[Lightnin' Hopkins]]
| cover      = Early Recordings (Lightnin' Hopkins album).jpg
| alt        =
| released   = 1965
| recorded   = 1946–50
| venue      =
| studio     = [[SugarHill Recording Studios#Gold Star Studios|Gold Star]] (Houston, Texas)
| genre      = [[Blues]]
| length     = 45:52
| label      = [[Arhoolie Records|Arhoolie]]
| compiler   = [[Chris Strachwitz]]
| chronology = [[Lightnin' Hopkins]]
| prev_title =
| prev_year  =
| next_title = [[Early Recordings Vol. 2]]
| next_year  = 1971
}}
'''''Early Recordings''''' is an album by the blues musician [[Lightnin' Hopkins]] featuring tracks recorded at [[SugarHill Recording Studios#Gold Star Studios|Gold Star Studios]] in Houston, Texas between 1946 and 1950, eight of which were originally released as 10-inch 78rpm records on the [[Gold Star Records|Gold Star]] and Jax labels, along with eight others that were previously unissued.<ref>O'Brien, T. J. [https://lightninghopkins.wordpress.com/lightning-album-of-the-week/ Lightnin' Album of the Week: Week 17 – December 25, 2010] accessed November 23, 2018</ref> [[Arhoolie]] reissued ''The Gold Star Sessions'' on two CDs through [[Smithsonian Folkways]] in 1990.<ref>[https://folkways.si.edu/search?query=Lightnin%27%20Hopkins Smithsonian Folkways: Lightnin' Hopkins catalog] accessed November 23, 2018</ref>
==Reception==
{{Album ratings
| rev1 = [[AllMusic]]
| rev1Score = {{rating|3|5}}<ref name="AllMusic" />
}}
[[AllMusic]] reviewer [[Eugene Chadbourne]] stated: "Much of the body of this blues artist's song catalog kind of runs together into a long odyssey, delivered in a rubato medium feel, sometimes locking into a steady beat but often hovering somewhere behind and ahead. As if performing an endless series of card tricks with only three cards, he comes up with variation after variation on the basic [[Twelve-bar blues|12-bar form]] and a series of blues riffs that he has ready to fit any and all occasions. Listeners may not be able to tell one track from the next, but Hopkins' feel on guitar and charismatic, lilting voice has proven to be a winner with blues fans decade after decade. The ever adventuresome Hopkins cut some tracks on organ during this period ...  Although the resulting 'Organ Boogie' certainly provides some variety, the songs with the guitar are of much more lasting music value, the organ numbers mostly of interest as an oddity".<ref name="AllMusic">{{AllMusic|first=Eugene |last=Chadbourne |class=album |id=mw0000888920 |title= Lightnin' Hopkins: ''Early Recordings Vol. 1'' – Review |accessdate= November 22, 2018}}</ref>
==Track listing==
All compositions by Sam "Lightnin'" Hopkins
# "Bluebird Blues" aka "Glory Be Blues" – 3:11 <small>previously unreleased</small>
# "Walking Blues" – 2:47
# "Unkind Blues" – 3:00
# "Mad With You" – 2:32
# "Somebody's Got to Go" {{a.k.a.}} "Goodbye Blues" – 2:43 <small>previously unreleased</small>
# "[[Automobile Blues]]" – 2:47
# "Seems Funny Baby" – 3:03 <small>previously unreleased</small>
# "Coolin' Board Blues" a.k.a. "Thunder and Lightnin' Blues" – 2:43 <small>previously unreleased</small>
# "Airplane Blues" – 2:42
# "Loretta Blues" – 2:45 <small>previously unreleased</small>
# "Whiskey Blues" – 2:42 <small>previously unreleased</small>
# "You Don't Know" – 2:43
# "Organ Boogie" – 2:59 <small>previously unreleased</small>
# "What Can It Be" – 2:39
# "Ida Mae" – 2:40
# "Goin' Back and Talk to Mama" – 2:56 <small>previously unreleased</small>
==Personnel==
*[[Lightnin' Hopkins]] – guitar, vocals, [[electronic organ|organ]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{Lightnin' Hopkins}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Lightnin' Hopkins albums]]
[[Category:1965 albums]]
[[Category:Arhoolie Records albums]]