An interesting collection of stray Lightnin' sides from 1959 and 1960. On some, he's playing alone and acoustic, on others he's playing electric with a small band, even turning in chaotic instrumentals like "
Guitar Lightnin,'" "
Shake Yourself", and "
Talk of the Town". Most of these are studio tracks, but there's some live stuff on here as well, most notably "
Big Car Blues", the by-now-familiar version which shows up on a lot of other Hopkins anthologies. The most interesting track here is "
Shaggy Dog", featuring a rhythm section that follow him every step of the way with a trombone player playing right along - and it all works! For a hodgepodge of leftovers, there's a lot of great Lightnin' on here.
From The Vaults Of Everest Records (CD 4) - Nothin' But The Blues review by allmusic.com