NONFICTION

Mojo Hand: The Life and Music of Lightnin' Hopkins

by David Ensminger
O'Brien, Timothy J. & . Univ. of Texas. Apr. 2013. 304p. photogs. index. ISBN 9780292745155. $29.95. MUSIC
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Lightnin' Hopkins was a deeply influential blues musician whose career was filled with staggering highs and lows. After years of toil and a brief prison term in Texas, Hopkins found success in the late 1940s when he was in his 30s. His style of unaccompanied, straight-talking country blues, coupled with a conversational stage presence, led him through a vast recording career and countless live performances that are well documented here by the late O'Brien (history, Univ. of Houston) and Ensminger (Left of the Dial: Conversations with Punk Icons). Hopkins had rather unorthodox business practices for a musician—avoiding managers, agents, etc.—and the details of his career, filtered through a picture of the business at large, paints an interesting portrait of the blues and folk world from the 1940s through the 1980s.
VERDICT This is the second biography of Hopkins to appear in the last few years, joining Alan Govenar's 2010 Lightnin' Hopkins: His Life and Blues. While both books are thorough and well researched, this new release, though very informative, is slightly more academic and does not shed dramatic new light on the subject. Recommended only for dedicated fans.
Reviewed by Peter Thornell, Hingham P.L., MA , Apr 15, 2013
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