R. L. Burnside

R. L. Burnside is a blues musician from near Holly Springs, Mississippi. He was born on November 23, 1926 in Lafayette County in the hills of North Mississippi and has lived most of his life in adjoining Marshall County, where Holly Springs is located.

R.L. Burnside was inspired to pick up the guitar after hearing the John Lee Hooker 45 "boogie chillen" (which inspired numerous other rural bluesmen, among them Buddy Guy, to start playing). He learned music largely from Mississippi Fred McDowell, who lived nearby in an adjoining county. He was also cites his cousin-in-law, Muddy Waters, as an influence. Except for a short period in Chicago in the 1950s, he has spent his entire life in his home state.

Living in one area has not led to a quiet existence, however. He claims to have been convicted for murder and sentenced to six months of incarceration for the crime. Burnside's boss at the time reputedly pulled strings to keep the murder sentence short, due to having need of his skills as a tractor driver.

His earliest recordings were made in 1969 by George Mitchell and released on Arhoolie Records. Another album of acoustic material were recorded that year and little else was released before "Hill Country Blues," in the early 1980s. An album's worth of singles followed, released on ethnomusicology professor Dr. David Evans' Highwater Records label in Memphis, Tennessee.

The Oxford, Mississippi, label Fat Possum Records was founded by Living Blues magazine editor Peter Lee and Matthew Johnson to record aging North Mississippi bluesmen such as Burnside and his friend Junior Kimbrough. Burnside has remained with Fat Possum since then and has been mostly playing with his friend and understudy, the white slide guitar player Kenny Brown, whom he claims as his "adopted son."

Since the death of Kimbrough and the burning of Kimbrough's juke joint in Chulahoma, Mississippi, Burnside quit recording studio material for Fat Possum, though he did continue to tour until 2001 when, after a severe heart attack, his doctor ordered him to stop drinking, a move which he claims left him unable to play. Members of his large extended family continue to play blues in the Holly Springs area; grandson Cedric Burnside tours with Kenny Brown, while grandson Duwayne Burnside plays guitar with the North Mississippi Allstars (Polaris; Hill Country Revue with R.L. Burnside). Duwayne Burnside and the Mississippi Mafia recorded Live At the Mint in in October 1997. Members included Cedric Burnside, Eddie Batos, Joe Hill from Alien Ant Farm, and David Kimbrough, Jr. (JR's son) with Duwayne's father R.L. sitting in on a few tracks. Duwayne and Mississippi Mafia's newest release expected out in March 2005, was recorded at Delta Studios in Clarksdale, Mississippi featuring James Mathus, rhythm guitar (Squirrel Nut Zippers), and Roy Cunningham on drums (Stax Sessions), Garry Burnside, bass guitar. In 2004, the Burnside sons opened Burnside Blues Cafe located 30 miles southeast of Memphis at the intersection of U.S. Highway 78 and Mississippi Highway 7 in Holly Spring, Mississippi.

Selected Albums

• A Ass Pocket of Whisky (1996, featuring the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion)
• Burnside on Burnside (a critically acclaimed 2001 live album recorded in the grand ballroom on San Francisco's Burnside street)
• Come On In, Wish I Was in Heaven Sitting Down, and A Bothered Mind (three albums of remixed material, often featuring guest artists, released in 1998, 2000 and 2004, respectively)
• Too Bad Jim (A juke joint classic produced in 1992 by Robert Palmer.)
• Well, Well, Well (Songs and interviews from 1986-1993, released in 2001 on MC Records)

References

• Allmusic.com artist page (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:kzfexqw5ldde~T1)
• Fat Possum artist website (http://www.fatpossum.com/artists/rl.html)
• Mabe, Ed. R. L. Burnside: One Badass Bluesman (http://www.furious.com/perfect/rlburnside.html). Nov. 1999.
• Slade's R. L. Burnside page (http://www.ionet.net/~tslade/burnside.htm)
• Juke Joint Music (http://www.JukeJointMusic.com)
• http://www.nmallstars.com/fy:R.L. Burnside