Archive Review: R.L. Burnside’s Burnside On Burnside (2001)

Burnside On Burnside, recorded live at the Crystal Ballroom on, well, Burnside Street in Portland, Oregon, showcases a return to an earthier sound for Mississippi Hill Country bluesman R.L. Burnside. With a backing band that includes his twenty-two year old grandson Cedric and his longtime sidekick (and stepson), guitarist Kenny Brown, the 74-year old musician delivers a red-hot set of classic raw blues. 

Burnside’s bent-note style of guitar playing, inspired by mentor Mississippi Fred McDowell, is a classic example of traditional Mississippi Hill Country blues. When matched with Brown’s looping bottleneck slidework, and the younger Burnside’s steady rhythms, the guitar creates an almost hypnotic tapestry upon which the bluesman embroiders his powerful vocals. At home while on any stage, Burnside tells jokes, wanders across various musical pathways, and generally plays what he wants to play.

This is no slick Chicago-styled blues, or the work of some studio-bred Texas guitarslinger, nosirree - this is primal, no-frills, rockin-the-Casbah, honest-to-god jukejoint BLOOZE, delivered straight up, with no chaser. A gem among blues albums, Burnside On Burnside captures the music’s threatening ambiance and fiery essence like no other live album these ears have ever heard. (Fat Possum Records, released 2001)

Review originally published by Alt.Culture.Guide™ zine...

Also on That Devil Music: R.L. Burnside’s I Wish I Was In Heaven Sitting Down CD review

Archive Review: Furry Lewis's Good Morning Judge (2004)

Walter “Furry” Lewis was a fixture on the Memphis blues scene for years beyond count, recording his first songs in the ‘20s, retiring from music in the ‘30s and being rediscovered in the ‘50s. While most of the original country bluesmen had fled the Delta for Chicago, Detroit and other points north, Lewis remained on Beale Street, traveled the Southeast in medicine shows and, along the way, forged a musical legacy that stands up with the greatest artists of the genre. The timing of the release of Good Morning Judge couldn’t come at a better time as it is one of the strongest collections of Lewis recordings that is currently available.

Recorded by producer George Mitchell in Memphis circa 1962, Good Morning Judge offers Lewis in fine form. The opening title cut is hilarious, Lewis stating that “I got arrested once,” and then going on to deny accusations of murder, fraud, forgery, and even loitering, his light-hearted lyrics covering the deadly seriousness of institutional racism, his vocals accompanied by slinky bottleneck guitar. 

In fact, much of Good Morning Judge showcases Lewis’ unique and intriguing six-string style, the elder bluesman filling songs like “Blues Around My Bed” and “Roll And Tumble Blues” with spry energy and soulful performances. “Don’t You Wish Your Mama Had Named You Furry Lewis” and “Furry Lewis Rag” revisit these traditional blues tunes with more braggadocio than any hip-hop microphone fiend could muster. A wonderful introduction to the lively wit, musical talent and immense charisma of Furry Lewis, Good Morning Judge should be on the shelf of any serious fan of the blues. (Fat Possum Records, released February 3, 2004)

Review originally published by Alt.Culture.Guide™ zine, 2004

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: Furry Lewis’ Good Morning Judge

Spotlight on R.L. Burnside

R.L. Burnside photo by Bill Steber, courtesy Fat Possum Records

R.L. Burnside Select Discography:
Bad Luck City (Fat Possum Records, 1994)
Too Bad Jim (Fat Possum, 1994), produced by Robert Palmer
A Ass Pocket of Whiskey (Fat Possum, 1996) [with the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion]
Mr. Wizard (Fat Possum, 1997) [two tracks with Jon Spencer]
Acoustic Stories (M.C. Records, 1997)
Come On In (Fat Possum, 1998)
My Black Name a-Ringin' (Genes, 1999) [vintage recordings from 1969]
Wish I Was In Heaven Sitting Down (Fat Possum, 2000)
Burnside On Burnside (Fat Possum, 2001) [live LP]
First Recordings (Fat Possum, 2003) [George Mitchell sessions circa 1967]
A Bothered Mind (Fat Possum, 2004)

North Mississippi Hill Country blues legend R.L. Burnside had been performing and recording for decades before he struck paydirt in the 1990s as part of an overall rediscovery by indie rock fans of Mississippi blues music that was fueled by Fat Possum Records. Burnside found a new audience with his sincere, high-energy blues sound among young punk and garage-rock fans after recording with indie rocker Jon Spencer in the middle part of the decade, but it was his own recordings like Wish I Was In Heaven Sitting Down and the live Burnside On Burnside that cemented his legacy as one of the most innovative and influential artists in the history of Mississippi blues. Sadly, Burnside left us in 2005 at the age of 78 years, but he leaves behind an enormous musical legacy that is being carried on to this day by his grandson Cedric Burnside.

Also on That Devil Music: R.L. Burnside - Wish I Was In Heaven Sitting Down CD review

It’s A Memphis Rent Party in March!

Grammy™ Award-winning writer and music historian Robert Gordon (no relation) is the author of some of my favorite books on music, including It Came From Memphis, Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion, and Can’t Be Satisfied, the best Muddy Waters bio, bar none. Gordon has a new tome that will be published on March 6th, 2018 titled Memphis Rent Party: The Blues, Rock & Soul in Music’s Hometown, an exploration of the great music made by legends like bluesman Furry Lewis, rocker Alex Chilton, and many others.

On March 9th, a few days after the publication of what promises to be another great book by Gordon, Fat Possum Records will release a soundtrack LP on glorious vinyl to accompany the book. Featuring a veritable “who’s who” of unsung Memphis musical idols, the album covers the genres and artists that make the Bluff City special, from the aforementioned Lewis and Chilton to Tav Falco’s Panther Burns, early rockers Charlie Feathers and Jerry Lee Lewis, and bona fide Memphis music legend Jim Dickinson.

Better than half of the Memphis Rent Party album is comprised of previously-unreleased material like Chilton’s reckless performance of reggae legend Jimmy Cliff’s classic “The Harder They Come”; a collaboration between the North Mississippi Allstars’ Luther Dickinson and Sharde Thomas, granddaughter of bluesman Otha Turner; and Big Daddy Jim Dickinson’s tongue-in-cheek track “I’d Love to Be A Hippie (But My Hair Won’t Grow That Long).”

Memphis Rent Party also includes two lo-fi recordings that Gordon made on location with a cassette recorder – Junior Kimbrough’s “All Night Long,” recorded in 1986 in the Hill Country Blues legend’s living room, and the Fieldstones’ “Little Bluebird,” caught live at the notorious Green’s Lounge in Memphis. The album also features music by local talents like jazz legend Calvin Newborn, pianist Mose Vinson, and country singer Jerry McGill’s reading of the Guy Clark classic “Desperados Waiting For A Train,” the singer backed by Dickinson’s Mud Boy and the Neutrons, the song recorded while McGill was on the run from the law.

No matter your taste in music, there’s something among the dozen tracks on Memphis Rent Party to tickle your fancy, the album’s creative diversity making it the perfect soundtrack to listen to while reading Gordon’s latest book!

Memphis Rent Party LP tracklist:

Side A
1. Jerry McGill – “Desperados Waiting For A Train”
2. Luther Dickinson and Sharde Thomas – “Chevrolet”
3. Junior Kimbrough – “All Night Long”
4. Furry Lewis – “Why Don’t You Come Home Blues”
5. Calvin Newborn – “Frame for the Blues”

Side B
1. Alex Chilton with the Randy Band – “Johnny Too Bad”
2. Jerry Lee Lewis – “Harbor Lights”
3. The Fieldstones – “Little Bluebird”
4. The Panther Burns – “Drop Your Mask”
5. Mose Vinson – “Same Thing on My Mind”
6. Charlie Feathers – “Defrost Your Heart”
7. Jim Dickinson – “I’d Love to Be A Hippie”

Buy the book from Amazon.com: Robert Gordon’s Memphis Rent Party

By the LP from Amazon.com: Fat Possum’s Memphis Rent Party

Fat Possum Records' historic Worried Blues LP/CD series

Fat Possum Records is known these days for the label’s cutting edge rock releases by bands like Temples, Communions, or Bash & Pop. Back in the ‘90s, though, the up-and-coming indie imprint was a hothouse of blues, releasing albums by artists like R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough, Mississippi Hill Country veterans whose commercial breakthroughs during the age of college radio and alt-rock helped put Fat Possum on the map.

On July 21, 2017 Fat Possum will revisit its stories past with the release of the ten-album Worried Blues series on vinyl, CD, and digital download, available exclusively from Amazon Music. Worried Blues features rare, lost, and long out-of-print recording from ten architects of 20th century blues music: R.L. Burnside, Mississippi John Hurt, Skip James, Houston Stackhouse, Rev. Gary Davis, Honeyboy Edwards, Furry Lewis, Little Brother Montgomery, Rev. Robert Wilkins, and Bukka White, each of which are represented by an individual collection in the Worried Blues series.

Much of the material found on the Worried Blues albums was recorded from 1963 to 1972 by Gene Rosenthal, the founder of Adelphi Records, with help from legendary guitarist and musicologist John Fahey. The artists represented by the series provide a rich tapestry of blues music from across the Mississippi Delta and hill country, all of them rather obscure until rediscovered by a new generation of fans. Although these recordings were released on CD in the early ‘90s, they’ve all been out-of-print for over 20 years and have never been released on vinyl. There’s a lot of history here, as well – Skip James’ recordings for Rosenthal were his first in 30 years while historic recordings by Bukka White and Mississippi John Hurt, made at the dawn of the ‘60s “folk blues” revival, sat in the archives for decades before their brief release by Adelphi.

The Worried Blues series covers a lot of stylistic ground as well. Although all ten artists hail from Mississippi, their individual hue of blues differs greatly, from John Hurt’s ragtime-flavored fretwork to Furry Lewis’ slide-guitar and from Skip James’ mournful sound to R.L. Burnside’s ebullient Hill Country stomp. These are no cut-rate budget releases, either, each Worried Blues album including 10 to 16 songs by the artist; the vinyl releases include a digital download card. Check out the Fat Possum Records website for track listings for each individual album, and you can buy them through our links to the vinyl releases on Amazon.com below.

Fat Possum's Worried Blues series:
• R.L. Burnside's Worried Blues 
• Rev. Gary Davis' Worried Blues
• Honeyboy Edwards' Worried Blues
• Mississippi John Hurt's Worried Blues
• Skip James' Worried Blues
• Furry Lewis' Worried Blues
• Little Brother Montgomery's Worried Blues
• Houston Stackhouse' Worried Blues
• Bukka White's Worried Blues
• Rev. Robert Wilkins' Worried Blues

CD Review: Junior Kimbrough's You Better Run (2003)

Mississippi – this is where the blues began. Get off Interstate 40 from Nashville to Memphis just short of the Bluff City and go directly south. You'll hit Highway 6 West, which will take you across the North Mississippi Hill Country, where Fred McDowell, R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough lived and toiled and made music. When you hit Highway 61, sneak in behind the casinos in Tunica and make your way to the old highway. This is the road used by hundreds of African-American sharecroppers, many the sons and daughters of slaves, to make their way out of the frying pan of the Delta and into the fire of big cities like St. Louis, Chicago and Detroit in search of a better life. Go south on 61 'til you hit Clarksdale and stop at the crossroads where Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil. You're in the heartland of the blues, baby, and if the faces of the people you've seen as you drove through this fabled land hasn't brought you an understanding of the blues, then nothing ever will...

Junior Kimbrough was one of the last of the authentic Hill Country bluesmen, as gifted an artist as the state ever shared with the world, and when he died in 1998 at the age of 67, a large piece of blues tradition went with him. Even though he didn't record his first album until 1992, Kimbrough's influence on contemporary blues and rock music is immense and unstated. "Discovered" by critic and blues aficionado Robert Palmer, Kimbrough was featured in Palmer's excellent book and film, Deep Blues. Palmer was responsible for getting Junior's unique sound on tape, producing the bluesman's first two albums for Fat Possum, the tracks recorded mostly at the juke joint that Kimbrough operated in Chulahoma, Mississippi.

You Better Run: The Essential Junior Kimbrough serves as a primer for the uninitiated listener. Collecting material from Kimbrough's first four albums along with odd live tracks and rarities, You Better Run offers an overview of Kimbrough's career and cements his place in the blues hierarchy. Kimbrough's music is deceptively simple, usually beginning with a repetitive riff upon which Junior embroiders his free-flowing lyrics. The Soul Blues Boys – bassist Gary Burnside (son of Junior's contemporary R.L. Burnside) and drummer Kenny Malone (one of Junior's many sons) – react to Kimbrough's improvisations without missing a beat, providing a hard-driving musical tapestry behind Junior's hypnotic performances. Several tracks here include guitarist Kenny Brown, the aggressive axeman adding a further dimension to the material by providing an instrumental counterpoint to Kimbrough's droning six-string.

There are songs on You Better Run that will be studied by blues scholars for generations to come. The tension-filled "All Night Long," the haunting "Sad Days Lonely Nights," and the rambling title track all showcase Kimbrough's skills as a performer, the singer evoking passion, lust, dread and elation with nothing but his voice and guitar (no special effects necessary). "Done Got Old" is the chilling lament of a man facing his own mortality, Kimbrough's voice a plaintive wail above the sparse instrumentation. "Old Black Mattie" is a traditionally styled juke-joint blues, starting hard and rising to a powerful crescendo while "Most Things Haven't Worked Out" is a lengthy and insightful observation on life. Most, if not all of the songs here were captured in one take – Palmer observed that Junior never was one to do a song over again – lending a raw, immediate feel to the material, just like you'd hear it at Junior's juke-joint.

As Rolling Stone editor Anthony DeCurtis states in his excellent liner notes to You Better Run, Kimbrough's blues were "a language that he made up," an entirely original distillation of one-hundred years of Mississippi music, rural culture and poverty. Kimbrough is often compared to his friend, contemporary and sometimes rival R.L. Burnside, but Junior's music has less to do with the Hill Country fife and drum tradition followed by Burnside and more to do with the ghosts of Mississippi bluesmen who came before. Although there are a few artists who evoke the Kimbrough style – Richard Johnston, who fronted the Soul Blues Boys after Junior's death, comes to mind – nobody will ever be able to replace Junior Kimbrough. If you have any interest in the genre at all, You Better Run: The Essential Junior Kimbrough is required listening in the Blues 101 course load.

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: Junior Kimbrough's You Better Run

Originally published by Alt.Culture.Guide™, 2003

Fat Possum Records celebrates 25th Anniversary

Launched in 1991 by blues fan Matthew Johnson, the Oxford, Mississippi-based Fat Possum Records quickly earned a name for itself by recording artists that had largely been overlooked by established blues imprints like Alligator and Blind Pig Records. Specializing in artists well-versed in the (then) obscure branch of the genre known as Mississippi Hill Country blues, Fat Possum gained respect and recognition with releases like Junior Kimbrough’s All Night Long and R.L. Burnside’s Bad Luck City, which were produced by respected musician and former New York Times music critic Robert Palmer.

It’s been a quarter-century since Johnson formed his ground-breaking label, and throughout the ensuing years Fat Possum has branched out, releasing acclaimed albums by bluesmen like Robert Belfour and T-Model Ford as well as rockers like the Black Keys and the Stooges. The underdog Southern label whose motto is “we’re trying our best” celebrates its Silver Anniversary in 2016 with an ambitious, year-long program that will feature the first-time-on-vinyl release of thirty phenomenal, ground-breaking blues recordings from the Fat Possum archives. Many of the titles will also be made available as digital downloads.

Among the fresh-to-vinyl reissues to be released by Fat Possum as part of its 25th anniversary celebration are Junior Kimbrough’s Meet Me In The City, which was originally released on CD a year after the bluesman’s death in 1998, and T-Model Ford’s outrageous LPs Pee Wee Get My Gun (1997) and Bad Man (2002), the latter produced by Memphis music legend Jim Dickinson. Other classic titles receiving the deluxe ‘hot wax’ treatment include Asie Payton’s Just Do Me Right (2002), Robert Belfour’s What’s Wrong With You (2000), and R.L. Burnside’s Unplugged, an anticipated collection of performances recorded in Europe in 1982, years before Fat Possum’s most beloved bluesman signed with the label.

Additionally, the Fat Possum-affiliated Big Legal Mess Records will be releasing ten album reissues on its own on vinyl and digitally, vintage bluesmen recorded by producer and music historian George Mitchell in the field between 1963 and 1982. Many of these albums have been unavailable since their original release, and among the titles are great records like R.L. Burnside’s Mississippi Hill Country Blues (1981) and Furry Lewis’s Good Morning Judge (1960s-era recordings from the Memphis bluesman). John Lee Hooker’s Alone, a solo live set recorded at Hunter College in New York in 1976 will be released as two single vinyl albums.

Fat Possum has long been known for the label’s inspired compilation discs, and collections like the label’s three volumes of Not The Same Old Blues Crap (from 1997, 2001, and 2004 and featuring Fat Possum artists and rockers like Hasil Adkins and Paul Westerberg’s Grandpaboy); 1998’s All Men Are Liars (with Bob Log III and the Neckbones); and its 2005 Junior Kimbrough tribute Sunday Nights (featuring the Black Keys, Iggy & the Stooges, and Mark Lanegan) will also be released on vinyl and digitally. We have the label’s release schedule for the rest of the year listed below, and you can join in the anniversary celebration at Fat Possum’s website.

Fat Possum Records 25th Anniversary Vinyl Releases:

April 8th: Furry Lewis - Good Morning Judge [LP/digital]
April 8th: Houston Stackhouse & Friends [LP/digital]
April 16th: Sunday Nights: The Songs of Junior Kimbrough [Record Store Day LP]
April 16th: Junior Kimbrough - I Gotta Try You Girl (Daft Punk edit) [Record Store Day LP]
May 6th: R.L. Burnside - Mississippi Hill Country Blues [LP]
May 20th: John Lee Hooker - Alone, Volume 1 [LP]
May 20th: John Lee Hooker - Alone, Volume 2 [LP]
May 27th: T-Model Ford - Pee Wee Get My Gun [LP]
May 27th: T-Model Ford - Bad Man [LP]
June 10th: Jim Bunkley & George Henry Bussey [LP/digital]
June 10th: Junior Kimbrough - Meet Me in the City [LP]
June 24th: R.L. Burnside - Unplugged [LP]
July 15th: Asie Payton - Just Do Me Right [LP]
July 15th: Robert Belfour - What's Wrong With You [LP]
July 22nd: All Men Are Liars compilation [LP/digital]
August 17th: Jimmy Lee Harris - I Wanna Ramble [LP/digital]
August 17th: Robert Cage - Can See What You're Doing [LP]
September 9th: Johnny Farmer - Wrong Doers Respect Me [LP]
October 7th: Dewey Corley & Walter Miller [LP/digital]
October 7th: Paul “Wine” Jones - Mule [LP]

CD Preview: Jimbo Mathus’ Band of Storms

You just never know where Jimbo Mathus’ restless muse is going to take him, so every new recording from the talented Mississippi native is an adventure. On May 6th, 2016, Mathus fans can ride the roller-coaster when Big Legal Mess, via Fat Possum Records, releases the nine-song EP Band of Storms.

Characterized by Mathus in a press release for the new record as “just some offs and ends…you know, folk music,” Band of Storms is said to feature an inspired mix of garage-rock, blues, honky-tonk, R&B, and other American music forms. “It’s just a continuation of the work I’ve been doing for, shoot, the past 20 years,” Mathus says. “There’s no big overall, arching thing. It’s just random notes out of my brain.”

The EP’s cover art is by Erika Jane Amerika, the artist capturing the vibe of the songs with her portrait of Mathus standing in a cypress swamp with a guitar in one hand and a fiery bible in the other, with an alligator at his feet alongside his Catahoula dog and a snake-handling Yemayá (the “great mother” of Santeria religion). The folksy cover art of Band of Storms accurately portrays the theme of Mathus’ songs, of which he says “it’s dealing with nature – forces beyond us – and trying to sum it up in my little cave paintings that we call recorded songs.”
   
Band of Storms was recorded at Dial Back Sound, the Water Valley, Mississippi studio owned by Fat Possum Records partner Bruce Watson. Mathus records at the studio frequently, and he’s joined on the EP by a talented group of multi-instrumentalist musicians like Ryan Rogers, Eric Carlton, Will McCarley, Jim Spake, and Stu Cole, among others, who helped create what Mathus calls a “primal Southern groove.” Eight of the nine songs were written by Mathus, with “Play With Fire” co-written with Mathus’ late friend Robert Earl Reed.

The songs on Band of Storms range from the garage-rockin’ “Massive Confusion,” an homage to bands like the Ramones and the Replacements, where Mathus notes the unlikely rhyming of “Yemayá” with “FBI,” and odd pairing to be sure. “I wrote it when I was getting audited by the IRS and I was trying to save my fuckin’ ass,” says Mathus. “It’s just super-punk rock. I came up in the ’80s and the Replacements turned me on to songwriting. They showed me that I could actually write songs. I’m 48, but I’m still a punk rocker.” Other songs on the EP include the bluesy “Can’t Get Much Higher,” the twangy Southern Gothic “Stop Your Crying,” and the Celtic-inspired “Wayward Wind.”

Jimbo Mathus never disappoints, so circle May 6th on your calendar and get ready to part with some coin for a copy of Band of Storms, nine brand new songs by one of Americana’s most imaginative and exciting artists.

CD Preview: Ironing Board Sam’s Super Spirit

Since hooking up with the good folks at the Music Maker Relief Foundation in 2010, blues legend Ironing Board Sam has been making up for lost time. After the non-profit outfitted the flamboyant musician with new gear, Sam has been hitting the road and the recording studio alike, releasing four critically-acclaimed albums under the Music Maker banner in four years.

The 75-year-old bluesman isn’t done yet, nosirree…on October 2nd, 2015, Big Legal Mess Records (a subsidiary of Mississippi’s esteemed Fat Possum Records) will release Ironing Board Sam’s Super Spirit, a new ten-track collection produced by Big Legal Mess head honcho Bruce Watson and roots ‘n’ bluesman Jimbo Mathus at Watson’s Dial Back Studio in Water Valley, Mississippi.

Ironing Board Sam is backed on Super Spirit by a band that includes Mathus on guitar, bassist Stu Cole (Squirrel Nut Zippers), and drummer Barrett Martin (Screaming Trees). In his role as producer, Watson drew inspiration from classic 1960s and ‘70s era singles, pulling out songs by Ann Peebles, the Gories, Mathus, Jack Oblivian, and Roy Hawkins, among others for Sam to wrap his soulful voice around. The result is Super Spirit, a lively collection of blues, soul, and rock ‘n’ roll with a funky undercurrent that’s guaranteed to blow your mind!

Born Sammie Moore in Rock Hill, South Carolina in 1939, Sam got his nickname by strapping his keyboards to an ironing board hanging from his neck, allowing him to move around on stage. Way back in ’62, Sam’s band included a red-hot guitarist who would become known as Jimi Hendrix, and throughout the 1960s and ‘70s he released a number of singles for Atlantic Records and numerous soul labels, and was a regular guest on the Night Train TV show.

Although Sam scored some regional hits through the years, he wouldn’t release a debut album until 1996’s Human Touch. An earlier album, Ninth Wonder of the World of Music, which Sam using as a sort of calling card with promoters, was recorded in the 1970s but not released commercially until 2011. With Super Spirit, Ironing Board Sam is building on a legacy decades in the making. Check out Sam’s “Baby You Got it,” a track from Super Spirit, embedded below. You’re welcome…

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: Ironing Board Sam's Super Spirit