Sam (“Lightning”) Hopkins (15 March 1911 – 30 January 1982) was a blues singer and guitarist born in Centerville, Texas. He’s now considered as the last of the great country bluesmen who bridged the gap between rural and urban blues styles.

Sam’s father died in 1915, and the family (Sam, his mother and five brothers and sisters) moved to Leona. At age eight, he made his first instrument, a cigar-box guitar with chicken-wire strings. By ten he was playing music with Blind Lemon Jefferson, who encouraged him to continue. By the mid-1920s Sam had started jumping trains and playing blues anywhere he could. He got his big break in 1946 with his first recording session in Los Angeles. That first album has been described as “downbeat solo blues”. Hopkins went on to record for 20 different labels over the next ten years.

Hopkins faded into obscurity by the late 50s, but got a second chance in 1967 when Les Blank filmed a documentary on him. That resulted in a European tour and some gigs in the states that helped him a lot financially in his final years. He died of esophagus cancer in 1982.