#rl burnside

[vinvarma]

Portraits of Blues People (Round 1)

Quick and dirty portrait illustrations of some of my musical heroes: Big Walter Horton, Skip James, Big Mama Thornton and R.L. Burnside, respectively. This is a series that I hope to continue, time willing.

See these as and when they get done, on my Instagram / (at) mixtape (dot) in.

[dirtylowdown2]

You See Me Laughin': The Last of the Hill Country Bluesmen

(Full Documentary by Fat Possum) featuring : RL Burnside, Cedell Davis, T-Model Ford, Junior Kimbrough...

photo : RL Burnside

photo : RL Burnside

[rastronomicals]

3:50 AM EST February 13, 2025:

Mr. Airplane Man - "You Left Me Cold" From the album Mr. Airplane Man (1998)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

File under:    Bands Whom RL Burnside Thought Could Play The Blues     

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  <300x306>

[details2decern]

[ramonhrc]

[usedcarheaven]

Burnside..

[menandwomanofhistory]

R.L. Burnside

[ifelllikeastar]

R.L. Burnside played the harmonica and dabbled with playing guitar at the age of 16 learned mostly from Mississippi Fred McDowell. He credited singing at church and fife-and-drum picnics as influences in his music, along with Muddy Waters, Lightnin' Hopkins, and John Lee Hooker as influences later on in life. R.L. had a powerful, expressive voice, that did not fail with old age but rather grew richer, and he played both electric and acoustic guitar, with and without a slide. He was the grandfather to Cedric Burnside.

R.L. Burnside died September 1, 2005 in Memphis, Tennessee at the age of 78.

[afrotumble]

[swankyangles]

One of my favorite movies in the world has been reuploaded to YouTube in high quality, although I'm 2 years late to celebrate.

My friend had this on DVD, but 20 years ago it really changed the way I looked at music in terms of cultural value and paradigm. Feels funny to talk about it now.

I HIGHLY suggest you watch it

[jron]

It’s never too late to build something new.

Take R.L. Burnside, born in in 1926, who moved out of the Mississippi Delta and up to Holly Springs, where he lived for most of his life. He was a farmer & fisherman who learned to play guitar from his neighbor, went on to play a lot of shows and blues joints, gained some notoriety, and finally started putting out records in the 1980s, when he was around 50.

These were excellent blues records, but stay with me here, because it gets better. I’m not going to give you his whole discography, and I’m skipping over a lot of great stuff, with most of it firmly rooted in both north Mississippi and in the Delta. Original music to be sure, and very good, but also very much in the style of its place, what you might expect to hear in a blues joint.

After the release of Too Bad Jim in the early 1990s, he started getting invited to perform at music festivals around the world, increasing his popularity and access. He toured with Jon Spencer in the later 1990s (yes that’s his voice on Chicken Dog and him playing guitar on other songs) and he picked up a lot of new fans who were into the garage, punk and blues-rock scenes. Around 1997, Burnside released Sound Machine Groove, including some new versions of his earlier work, like this one:

During all that time, this old man was getting more and more into dubbing, remixing, and the newer sounds of the 90s, and only one year later—1998, when he was 71 years old—he released this album, Come On In. To me, it’s groundbreaking; he was trying out new things with the blues, with rock, with dubbing, things that just work.

You can hear a bit of how his time with Spencer influenced him (and the other way around), but the clear confidence of it is what really gets me. And he kept pushing himself, making music, and in 2004 at the age of 77, he recorded this masterpiece, A Bothered Mind.

Seriously, just go listen to it all. Here’s a sampling:

Sadly, Burnside died in 2004, never getting to keep building on that sound. But he’s an inspiration to me in how he kept trying new things and absorbing new influences for his whole life.

He took his classic sound and kept playing and inventing and experimenting, traveling the world, meeting new people, connecting different styles, and making something no one else ever had.

And it’s all so damn good.

[dirtylowdown2]

HONKY TONK ~ RL BURNSIDE

Saturday Night" in a north central Mississippi 'Tonk' called the Brotherhood Sportsmen's Lodge. We hear the blues expounded in its most volatile form. Hill country Blues player Rural (RL) Burnside and friends clearly delineate the honky tonk in rural black life. (White boy in the room is Arkansas, poet and raconteur, Randall Lyon). Como, Mississippi September 28, 1974 1/2" 0pen-reel video original  B/W 17-min. Produced by the TeleVista art-action group, Memphis.

[rastronomicals]

11:42 PM EDT April 8, 2025:

RL Burnside - "Goin' Down South" From the album   Heavy Nuggets Vol. 7: Boogie Children (December 2023)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

Free Giveaway with Mojo # 363, February 2024

[ramonhrc]

[purplealbumoftheday]

today's purple album of the day is: Too Bad Jim by R. L. Burnside!