Samuel John "Lightnin'" Hopkins (March 15, 1912 – January 30, 1982)[1] was an American country blues singer, songwriter, guitarist and occasional pianist from Centerville, Texas.

[2] The musicologist Robert "Mack" McCormick opined that Hopkins is "the embodiment of the jazz-and-poetry spirit, representing its ancient form in the single creator whose words and music are one act".

He developed a deep appreciation for the music at the age of eight, when he met Blind Lemon Jefferson at a church picnic in Buffalo, Texas.

[11] In 1959, the blues researcher Robert "Mack" McCormick contacted Hopkins, hoping to bring him to the attention of a broader musical audience engaged in the folk revival.

He made his debut at Carnegie Hall on October 14, 1960, alongside Joan Baez and Pete Seeger, performing the spiritual "Mary Don't You Weep".

[10] In 1968, Hopkins recorded the album Free Form Patterns, backed by the rhythm section of the psychedelic rock band 13th Floor Elevators.

[10] His obituary in the New York Times described him as "one of the great country blues singers and perhaps the greatest single influence on rock guitar players".

[15] His Gibson J-160e "hollowbox" is on display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, and his Guild Starfire at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., both on loan from the Joe Kessler Collection.

[citation needed] He played both "alternating" and "monotonic" bass styles incorporating imaginative, often chromatic turnarounds and single-note lead lines.

[citation needed] Lyrically, his songs expressed the problems of life in the segregated South, bad luck in love and other subjects common in the blues idiom.