Search - Lightnin Hopkins :: Mojo Hand

Vintage raw Lightnin'

Howard Sauertieg | Harrisburg, PA USA | 08/21/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I have this collection on LP. The track listing on Amazon does not correspond with the contents of my LP, which is titled "Mojo Hand" and manufactured by the Collectables record label. If the CD cover appeared on this page then I could review the product with more confidence. The LP cover is almost entirely red, with a big fist and forearm jutting from one corner into the center of the square. Anyway, caveat emptor (let the buyer beware). "Mojo Hand" features very little improvisation and none of Lightnin's famous stream-of-consciousness material. The set sounds like a real attempt to score on "the market." It's sharp, professional and intense, very unlike Lightnin's later recordings for Prestige/Vanguard in the '60s, which are more folk-traditional in orientation and more haphazard musically. Here, the monaural production is excellent; vocals and guitar are both miked perfectly (there's slight distortion, which is for the better). My favorite track is the closer, "Santa," a fundamentally filthy Xmas song. The version of "Mojo Hand" which opens the LP is superior to others I've run across elsewhere. For all these reasons I would rank this album at 5 stars, but it's docked a star for economic reasons - the 9 tracks run 33 minutes, 8 seconds, less than half the length of most reissue CDs. Couldn't the Collectables company have found something else to fill the time?"