Lightnin' Hopkins
originally recorded the ten tracks that make up
Free Form Patterns
on February 1, 1968, for the
International Artists
label. Also on that label's roster was the
psychedelic
group
13th Floor Elevators
, which, by 1968, had basically disbanded. For this session, producer
Lelan Rogers
(
Kenny
's brother) teamed
Hopkins
up with
Elevators
drummer
Danny Thomas
and bassist
Duke Davis
. While not as revolutionary as
John Lee Hooker
's sessions with
Canned Heat
, Free Form Patterns steers clear of the late-'60s
trappings that screwed up such similar sessions as
Electric Mud
. No one tried to bend
to fit a foreign musical approach on
; he made the music bend to him. ~ Al Campbell