Lightnin' Hopkins is one of the most respected and influential blues players there has ever been. He remained rooted in what is known as Texas Country Blues, not so much a style of playing as to do with the choices of local story songs. Texas is a huge State and has over the years lent itself to many events in a variety of places. Initially Lightnin' remained local but like others he was tempted to travel more as worldwide interest in the blues increased in the fifties and sixties. He then played all over the United States, including prestige venues like Carnegie Hall, and appeared in films and on TV shows. By the seventies he was travelling to Europe, especially to Germany where he was particularly popular up to his death in January 1982. He was the most personal and poetic minstrel whose work will endure.