About 20 years ago my wife and i went to a Soul week in Spain.There i heard this compelling but strange track "its bad you know" that packed the floor! After making the initial enquiry it turned out to be Delta Blues Singer R L Burnside who i had heard of and even had a couple of his albums,but not this gem! Apart from the killer track its a damn good album.Soon as i returned home i ordered the CD. Burnside was born in Harmontown, Mississippi, in 1926 Passed memphis 2005. He spent most of his life working as a sharecropper and a fisherman, as well as playing guitar at weekend house parties. He was first inspired to play guitar in his early twenties, after hearing John Lee Hooker play. He learned music from Mississippi Fred McDowell, who lived nearby. He was also influenced by his cousin-in-law, Muddy Waters. During the 1950s, Burnside moved to Chicago, Illinois to get a better job, but things did not turn out as he had hoped. Within one month, his father, brother, and uncle were all murdered in the city. He used this tragedy to help him write music. He used it mostly for his interpretation of Skip James's "Hard Time Killing Floor", "R.L.'s Story," and the opening and closing tracks on Burnside's 2000 album, Wish I Was In Heaven Sitting Down. Around 1959, he left Chicago and went back to Mississippi to work the farms and raise a family.After a heart attack in 2001, Burnside's doctor advised him to stop drinking, Burnside did, but said that change stopped him from playing. Members of his family continue to play blues in the Holly Springs area in the Delta. His grandson, Cedric Burnside, tours with Kenny Brown, while his son Duwayne Burnside has played guitar with the North Mississippi Allstars. In 2004, the Burnside sons opened Burnside Blues Cafe, 30 miles southeast of Memphis in Holly Springs, Mississippi. He recorded an impressive 18 albums and nearly a dozen singles.
AMM
The Taster!
Tracks Below (FLAC)
17 comments:
Great album AMM think mine version is mp3 so thanks for the upgrade
Reb
Thank you Very Much AMM
Thanks AMM for review. It's NOT bad you know.
Went to his sons' place over 10 years ago, when I sent several months in the Mississippi Delta region. Got to see him perform a few times back in the '90s. Them Delta blues will put their hooks in you, and like a snapping turtle, they won't easily let loose. Great review, AMM. Looking forward to this.
@pmac
love them blues pmac..this is quite a modernish album for R L.
wonderful story m8,god you,ve met/seen some legends!
I was dating a woman who was a FEMA field rep. She was assigned to handle claims in the Tuscaloosa, Alabama area following a horrendous tornado that struck the area. The closest place she could find to work from due to the devastation was the Mississippi Delta region. I was in between projects at the time, and followed her there. Got to spend most of my time just traveling through the Delta region and visiting various juke joints and just listening to musicians playing out on their front stoops. I’m friends with Little Freddie King (a NO blues guitarist) who grew up there, and Freddie would point me where to go and would call ahead to let people know I was ok for a white guy, so I got into some really off the road places and heard some incredible music. I’ve been extremely lucky.
First your comments are great and now the comments are picking up with some interesting material. Thanks AMM
This is modern blues the way I like it. And also very well recorded.
Nice discovery for me.
Yves
Thanks-new to me
New to me thanks AMM for this comp
this is "house" blues to me never listened before thank you AMM!
This review sounds interesting new to me thanks
A surprising choice. It will be very interesting to listen to this. Thanks for review, P.
Great taster. This one must have snuck past me!
Great album plenty blues here with touch of soul in there thanks for the review as I didn't know a lot about him thanks All Music Man
Cheers pedro
Nice story about a very interesting player.
Thanks for the review AMM looking forward to listening to it
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