When Lightnin' Struck the Pine

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[11]
Chicago Sun-Times	[12]
Robert Christgau	B+[13]
The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings	[9]
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette	[14]

Robert Christgau concluded that "it'll sure stick to your ribs longer than what Jon Spencer stewed up with R.L. Burnside—long enough to take you back to Davis's 1994 Fat Possum comp."^[13] The Chicago Tribune opined that, "despite some funny muttered-word asides, the record is a little too clean and professional, and Davis holds back instead of asserting his slurred- around-the-edges personality."^[15] The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said that "the results are deep blue notes twisted and bent to the breaking point, reshaped into surrealistically ragged tones and released to forge otherworldly harmonics."^[14]

AllMusic wrote that "it's a glorious, defiant celebration of Mississippi blues, recalling Muddy Waters more than, say, Junior Kimbrough in the deep Delta mud that sticks around greasy tracks like 'Pay to Play' or the closing instrumental 'Hold Me Baby'."^[11] In 2012, the Dallas Observer listed When Lightnin' Struck the Pine as one of the "Top Ten North Texas Blues Albums", deeming it "a fairly authentic slab of electrified Delta blues."^[16]