Headphone Highlights

Clutchy Hopkins

Ubiquity, Los Angeles

LA’s Ubiquity Records first became interested in releasing new tunes by Clutchy Hopkins when the Ubiquity crew set off on a search for “the best records they could find.” On one of their travels they stopped in the Californian Mojave desert at the local swap meet in the little town of Victorville. Instant luck led them to a few record crates jam-packed with classic soul, funk and jazz gems. But this happened to be the least of their discoveries. Next to the crates was a box of dusty reel to reel tapes. Blindly buying the tapes out of curiousty, they brought them back to their office only identifying the sounds from the tapes with the name that was etched on the casing: C.Hopkins. The Ubiquity crew spent a few months trying to track down the mystery man with no luck… Up until internet postings, MySpace vids and a call out of nowhere took them to closer to the source. Kelli Hopkins, the daughter of one Clutchy Hopkins, called to explain that the tapes contained unreleased material from her father. They were finally able to reach out to their reclusive mystery man. Good old Clutchy is a peaceful guy and some of his best recordings will finally be released in the form of his ‘Walking Backwards’ LP in early 2008. Watch out for the bearded man.