Issue No. 64 Winter 2009
Although Sam “Lightnin’” Hopkins was born in Centerville, Texas (north of Houston), he called the Bayou City home and Sugar Hill, then a subset of the Third Ward, his musical laboratory. Hopkins was a prolific guitarist who penned nearly 1,000 songs between the mid-1940s and his death in 1970. The Third Ward was his muse and stomping ground; he played clubs up and down Dowling Street, which runs perpendicular to Holman Avenue, home of Project Row Houses.
It’s no coincidence, then, that Round 29 of artist installations at Project Row Houses was conceived and designed to celebrate this venerable icon.