RL Burnside

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Biography

Not to be confused with R. H. Burnside , stage director.

R. L. Burnside (November 23, 1926 – September 1, 2005), born Robert Lee Burnside , was an United States|American blues singing|singer , songwriter , and guitarist who lived much of his life in and around Holly Springs, Mississippi . He played music for much of his life, but did not receive much attention until the early 1990s. In the latter half of the 1990s, Burnside repeatedly recorded with Jon Spencer , garnering crossover (music)|crossover appeal and introducing his music to a new fanbase within the underground music|underground garage rock scene.

One commentator noted that Burnside, along with Big Jack Johnson , Paul "Wine" Jones , Roosevelt "Booba" Barnes and Super Chikan|James "Super Chikan" Johnson , were "present-day exponents of an edgier, electrified version of the raw, uncut Delta blues sound."

Early life and career

Burnside was born in Harmontown, Mississippi , in Lafayette County, Mississippi|Lafayette County , United States . He spent most of his life in North Mississippi, working as a sharecropping|sharecropper and a commercial fisherman , as well as playing guitar in juke joint s and bars. He was first inspired to pick up the guitar in his early twenties, after hearing the 1948 John Lee Hooker single (music)|single , " Boogie Chillen ". Burnside learned music largely from Mississippi Fred McDowell , who lived nearby in an adjoining county. He also cited his cousin-in-law, Muddy Waters , as an influence.

Burnside grew tired of sharecropping and moved to Chicago in 1944 in the hope of finding better economic opportunities. He did find jobs at metal and glass factories, had the company of Muddy Waters and married Alice Mae in 1949, but things did not turn out as he had hoped. Within the span of one year his father, two brothers, and uncle were all murdered in the city, a tragedy that Burnside would later draw upon in his work, particularly in his interpretation of Skip James 's "Hard Time Killing Floor" and the talking blues "R.L.'s Story", 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. He killed a man at a dice game and was convicted of murder and sentenced to six months' incarceration (in Mississippi State Penitentiary|Parchman Prison ).McInerney, Jay. "White Man at the Door: One Man's Mission to Record the 'Dirty Blues' - before Everyone Dies." The New Yorker (February 4, 2002): page 55 Burnside's boss at the time reputedly pulled strings to keep the murder sentence short, due to having need of Burnside's skills as a tractor driver. Burnside later said "I didn't mean to kill nobody ... I just meant to shoot the sonofabitch in the head. Him dying was between him and the Lord."

His earliest sound recording and reproduction|recordings were made in the late 1960s by George Mitchell (musician)|George Mitchell and released on Arhoolie Records . Another album of acoustic material was recorded that year and little else was released before Hill Country Blues, in the early 1980s. Recorded between 1980 and 1984 by Leo Bruin in Groningen, Netherlands. An album's worth of single (music)|singles followed, released on ethnomusicology professor Dr. David Evans' High Water Recording Company|High Water record label in Memphis, Tennessee .

Later life and career

In the 1990s, he appeared in the film Deep Blues and began recording for the Oxford, Mississippi , label Fat Possum Records . Founded by Living Blues magazine editor Peter Redvers-Lee and Matthew Johnson , the label was dedicated to recording aging North Mississippi bluesmen such as Burnside and Junior Kimbrough .

Burnside remained with Fat Possum from that time until his death, and he usually performed with drum mer Cedric Burnside, his grandson, and with his friend and understudy, the slide guitar ist Kenny Brown (guitarist)|Kenny Brown , with whom he began playing in 1971 and claimed as his "adopted son."

In the mid 1990s, Burnside attracted the attention of Jon Spencer , the leader of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion , touring and recording with this group and gaining a new audience in the process.

Burnside's 1996 album A Ass Pocket of Whiskey (recorded with Jon Spencer) gained critical acclaim, earning praise from Bono and Iggy Pop . During this time he also provided the entertainment at private events such Richard Gere 's birthday party.

Members of his large extended family continue to play blues in the Holly Springs area: grandson Cedric Burnside tours with Kenny Brown and most recently with Steve 'Lightnin' Malcolm as part of the 'Juke Joint Duo', while his son Duwayne Burnside has played guitar with the North Mississippi Allstars ( Polaris ; Hill Country Revue with R. L. Burnside ). Nephew Garry Burnside used to play bass guitar with Junior Kimbrough and in 2006 released an album with Cedric. 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 Springs.

Death

Burnside had been in declining health since heart surgery in 1999. He died at St. Francis Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee on September 1, 2005 at the age of 78. Accessed 21-05-08) Services were held at Rust College in Holly Springs, which is also where services were held for his friend, Junior Kimbrough, who died in 1998, Accessed 24-05-08 with burial in the Free Springs Cemetery in Harmontown. Around the time of his death, he resided in Byhalia , Mississippi and his immediate survivors included:

His wife: Alice Mae Taylor Burnside (married 1949 or 1951); died November 16, 2008

Daughters: Mildred Jean Burnside, Linda Jackson, Brenda Kay Brooks, and Pamela Denise Burnside;

Sons: Melvin Burnside, R.L. Burnside Jr., Calvin Burnside, Joseph Burnside, Daniel Burnside, Duwayne Burnside, Dexter Burnside, Garry Burnside, and Rodger Harmon

Sisters: Lucille Burnside, Verelan Burnside, and Mat Burnside

Brother: Jesse Monia

35 Grandchildren

32 Great-Grandchildren"R.L. Burnside.” South Reporter “R.L. Burnside.” South Reporter (2005).

Style

Burnside had a powerful, expressive voice and played both electric guitar|electric and acoustic guitar s (both with a slide and without). His drone-based style was a characteristic of North Mississippi hill country blues rather than Mississippi Delta blues . Like other country blues musicians, he did not always adhere to twelve bar blues|12 - or sixteen bar blues|16 -bar blues patterns, often adding extra beat (music)|beats according to his preference. He called this "Burnside style" and often commented that his backing musicians needed to be familiar with his style in order to be able to play along with him.

His earliest recordings, like those of John Lee Hooker , sound very similar in their vocal and instrumental style. Many of his songs do not have chord progression|chord changes , but use the same chord (music)|chord or repeating bassline|bass line throughout. He often played in open G tuning, using fingers only- no pick. His vocal style is characterized by a tendency to "break" into falsetto briefly (usually at the ends of long notes).

Like the bluesman T-Model Ford , Burnside utilized the stripped-down element of his music, playing up the rawness, emphasizing his image as a lifelong hard-drinking man, and singing songs of swagger and rebellion. Burnside collaborated in the late 1990s with The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion on the album A Ass Pocket of Whiskey . Consequently, he gained the attention of many within this underground music scene, cited as an influence by Hillstomp and covered on record by The Immortal Lee County Killers . Burnside's "Skinny Woman" was also interpolated into the song " The Big Come Up|Busted " by fellow Fat Possum musicians The Black Keys , who have listed Burnside as an influence on their music.

He also knew many Deejay (Jamaican)|toasts (African American narrative folk poems such as " Signifying monkey " and "Tojo Told Hitler") and frequently recited them between songs at his live concerts and on his recordings.

Selected albums

First Recordings (recorded in the late 1960s by George Mitchell; re-released by Fat Possum Records in 2003)

Mississippi Hill Country Blues (released 1984 by Swingmaster)

Too Bad Jim (produced in 1992 by Robert Palmer (author/producer)|Robert Palmer )

Well, Well, Well (songs and interviews from 1986–1993, released in 2001 on MC Records)

A Ass Pocket of Whiskey (1996, featuring the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion )

Mr. Wizard (1997)

Acoustic Stories (1997)

My Black Name A-Ringin (1999)

Burnside on Burnside (a critically acclaimed 2001 live album recorded in the Crystal Ballroom (Portland, Oregon)|Crystal Ballroom on Portland, Oregon 's Burnside Street)

Come On In (1998) (remixed material)

Wish I Was in Heaven Sitting Down (2000) (remixed material)

A Bothered Mind (2004) (remixed material)

Films

Deep Blues: A Musical Pilgrimage to the Crossroads (1991). Directed by Robert Mugge

Restored original version, DVD contains two additional R.L. Burnside performances

Written, directed, and produced by Alan Lomax ; developed by the Association for Cultural Equity at Columbia University and Hunter College. North Carolina Public TV; A Dibb Direction production for Channel Four. This is a lightly re-edited version of "The Land Where the Blues Began" (1978) made by Alan Lomax, John Bishop, and Worth Long in Association with Mississippi Authority for Educational Television

''You See Me Laughin': The Last of the Hill Country Bluesmen (2003; released by Fat Possum Records in 2005). Produced and directed by Mandy Stein. Oxford, Mississippi: Plain Jane Productions, Inc; Fat Possum Records.

Richard Johnston: Hill Country Troubadour (2005) Directed by Max Shores, Alabama PBS, featuring interview with Burnside and information about the Holly Springs music community.

Big Bad Love (2001), Directed by Arliss Howard . Soundtrack songs by R.L. Burnside plus a cameo in the film performing live. MGM/IFC Films.

Copyright Citations

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1. Junior Kimbrough

Undetermined Music Artists