R. L. Burnside (November 23, 1926 – September 1, 2005) was an American

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

singer, songwriter and guitarist. He played music for much of his life but received little recognition before the early 1990s. In the latter half of that decade, Burnside recorded and toured with

Jon Spencer Jon Spencer (born February 5, 1965) is an American singer, composer and guitarist. He has been involved in multiple musical acts, such as Pussy Galore, Boss Hog, Heavy Trash and The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. History Jon Spencer was born ...

, garnering

crossover Crossover may refer to: Entertainment Albums and songs * ''Cross Over'' (Dan Peek album) * ''Crossover'' (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles album), 1987 * ''Crossover'' (Intrigue album) * ''Crossover'' (Hitomi Shimatani album) * ''Crossover'' (Yoshino ...

appeal and introducing his music to a new fan base in the punk and

garage rock Garage rock (sometimes called garage punk or 60s punk) is a raw and energetic style of rock and roll that flourished in the mid-1960s, most notably in the United States and Canada, and has experienced a series of subsequent revivals. The sty ...

scenes.

Life and career

1926–1959: Early years

Burnside was born in 1926 to Earnest Burnside and Josie Malone,Bruin, Leo (1981). Liner notes, ''R. L. Burnside Plays and Sings the Mississippi Delta Blues''
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/ref> in either

Harmontown ''Harmontown'' is a comedy podcast that aired live weekly from June 16, 2012 to December 3, 2019. It was hosted by writer Dan Harmon, best known as the creator of the television series ''Community'' and the co-creator of ''Rick and Morty'', along ...

, College Hill, or Blackwater Creek, all of which are in the rural part of Lafayette County, Mississippi, near the area that would be covered by Sardis Lake a few years later. His first name is given variously as R. L.,Scott Barretta
"Burnside, R. L."
''The Mississippi Encyclopedia''. Ted Ownby and Charles Reagan Wilson, eds. University Press of Mississippi, 2017. p. 155. ''"His given name appears to have been R. L.; his friends often called him Rule or Rural."'' Rural, Robert Lee, Rule, or Ruel. His father left the family early on, and R. L. grew up with his mother, grandparents, and several siblings. He played the harmonica and dabbled with playing guitar, beginning at the age of 16. He said he first played in public at age 21 or 22. He learned mostly from

Mississippi Fred McDowell Fred McDowell (January 12, 1904 – July 3, 1972), known by his stage name Mississippi Fred McDowell, was an American hill country blues singer and guitar player. Career McDowell was born in Rossville, Tennessee, United States. His parents were f ...

, who had lived near Burnside since Burnside was a child. He first heard McDowell playing at age 7 or 8 and eventually joined his gigs to play a late set.Filmed interview. ''You See Me Laughin'' (see filmography), minutes 25–30. Other local teachers were his uncle-in-law Ranie Burnette, who was a popular player from

Senatobia Senatobia is a city in, and the county seat of, Tate County, Mississippi, United States, and is the 16th largest municipality in the Memphis Metropolitan Area. The population was 8,165 at the 2010 census. Senatobia is the home of Northwest Miss ...

; the mostly unknown Henry Harden, Son Hibbler, Jesse Vortis, and Burnside's brother-in-law; and possibly Stonewall Mays.According to Axel Küstner, who met them both in 1978: Liner notes to 'Mississippi Delta Blues', 1982
discogsscan
Burnside cited church singing and fife-and-drum picnics as elements of his childhood's musical landscape, and he credited

Muddy Waters McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913 April 30, 1983), known professionally as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer and musician who was an important figure in the post-war blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of modern Chicago b ...

, Lightnin' Hopkins, and

John Lee Hooker John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1912 or 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues. Hooker often ...

as influences in adulthood. In the late 1940s he moved to Chicago, where his father had lived since he separated from his mother, in the hope of finding better economic opportunities. He found jobs at metal and glass factories, had the company of Muddy Waters (his cousin-in-law), and enjoyed the blues scene on

Maxwell Street Maxwell Street is an east-west street in Chicago, Illinois that intersects with Halsted Street just south of Roosevelt Road. It runs at 1330 South in the numbering system running from 500 West to 1126 West.Hayner, Don and Tom McNamee (1988). '' ...

. But things did not turn out as he had hoped; within the span of one year his father, two brothers, and two uncles were all murdered in the city. Three years after coming to Chicago, Burnside went back south. He married Alice Mae Taylor in 1949 or 1950, his second marriage. He moved several times in the 1950s, between

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

, the

Mississippi Delta The Mississippi Delta, also known as the Yazoo–Mississippi Delta, or simply the Delta, is the distinctive northwest section of the U.S. state of Mississippi (and portions of Arkansas and Louisiana) that lies between the Mississippi and Yazoo ...

and the hill country of northern Mississippi. During his time in the Delta, he met bluesmen

Robert Lockwood Jr. Robert Lockwood Jr. (March 27, 1915 – November 21, 2006) was an American Delta blues guitarist, who recorded for Chess Records and other Chicago labels in the 1950s and 1960s. He was the only guitarist to have learned to play directly fr ...

and Aleck "Rice" Miller. It seems it was around that time that Burnside killed a man, possibly at a

craps Craps is a dice game in which players bet on the outcomes of the roll of a pair of dice. Players can wager money against each other (playing "street craps") or against a bank ("casino craps"). Because it requires little equipment, "street c ...

game, was convicted of murder and incarcerated in

Parchman Farm Mississippi State Penitentiary (MSP), also known as Parchman Farm, is a maximum-security prison farm located in unincorporated Sunflower County, Mississippi, in the Mississippi Delta region. Occupying about of land,McInerney, Jay. "White Man at the Door: One Man's Mission to Record the 'Dirty Blues' – before Everyone Dies." '' New Yorker'' (February 4, 2002), page 55. He would later relate that his boss at the time had arranged to release him after six months, as he needed Burnside's skills as a tractor driver.

1960–1990: Part-time musician

He spent the next 45 years, not unlike his early years, in Panola and

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

counties, in northern Mississippi. At first he kept to particularly remote dwellings, working into the 1980s as a

sharecropper Sharecropping is a legal arrangement with regard to agricultural land in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on that land. Sharecropping has a long history and there are a wide range ...

growing cotton and soybean, as a commercial

fisherman A fisher or fisherman is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish. Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishers and fish farmers. Fishers may be professional or recreati ...

on the Tallahatchie River, selling his catch from door to door, and as a truck driver. Later he moved closer to Holly Springs. After coming back to Mississippi, and especially after marrying,Bruin, Leo, and Laundre, Kent. Liner notes of ''Mississippi Hill Country Blues''. Swingmaster CD 2201
scan 1scan 2
/ref> he picked more local gigs, playing guitar in juke joints and bars (some under his management), at picnics and at his own open house parties, and at an occasional festival. His career boomed in the last twenty years of his life. His earliest

recordings A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, r ...

were made in 1967 by George Mitchell, then a graduate student of journalism. Mitchell and his wife went on a 13-day summer trip in Mississippi, which resulted in the first recordings of several country blues artists. He came to Burnside's house near Coldwater on the advice of fife player and maker Othar Turner.George Mitchell; David Evans. Arhoolie 1042 (1969) liner notes (scans
12
Mitchell wrote that

Fred McDowell Fred McDowell (January 12, 1904 – July 3, 1972), known by his stage name Mississippi Fred McDowell, was an American hill country blues singer and guitar player. Career McDowell was born in Rossville, Tennessee, United States. His parents were f ...

had not told him about Burnside, likely because Burnside posed "big-time competition".Booklet of ''The George Mitchell Collection'' (2007), FP 1114. Quoted in Six of the songs, played on an acoustic guitar lent by Mitchell, were released on Arhoolie Records after two years; nine others are on later records. Another album of acoustic material was recorded in 1969 for

Adelphi Records Adelphi Records is an American independent record label founded in 1968 and incorporated in 1970 by Gene Rosenthal. History The label name was crafted by Rosenthal to suggest a combination of the Pythia, Greek oracle, nearby Adelphi, Maryland, as ...

, not to be released until thirty years later. Recordings from 1975 had a similar fate.Wolf LP 120.917 leaflet
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These recordings featured Burnside playing acoustic guitar and singing, and a few tracks had harmonica accompaniment by W.C. Veasey or Ulysse Red Ramsey. Although not recorded, by that time Burnside also played electric guitar. His early repertoire came from hill country and Memphis favorites,

, hits by Howlin' Wolf and Elmore James, and sides by Yank Rachell, Lightnin' Hopkins, and

Lonesome Sundown Cornelius Green III (December 12, 1928 – April 23, 1995), known professionally as Lonesome Sundown, was an American blues musician, best known for his swamp blues recordings for Excello Records in the 1950s and early 1960s. Early life Green ...

. In 1969 he performed for the first time outside the United States, at a program in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

with Lightnin' Hopkins and John Lee Hooker. As a solo performer, he made three tours in Europe, appearing before enthusiastic audiences.Evans, David (1980). Notes to High Water 410 EP
scan
, and to ''Sound Machine Groove'', 1981/1997
scan
. In 1974 he played at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, the first of nine of these festivals at which he performed. Also in 1974,

Tav Falco Gustavo Antonio "Tav" Falco is an American-born musician, performance artist, filmmaker, actor, author, photographer, and dancer. Falco has fronted the rock band Tav Falco's Panther Burns since 1979, and founded a parallel solo career that inco ...

filmed Burnside in the Brotherhood Sportsmen's Lodge, a juke joint he ran at the time near

Como Como (, ; lmo, Còmm, label=Comasco dialect, Comasco , or ; lat, Novum Comum; rm, Com; french: Côme) is a city and ''comune'' in Lombardy, Italy. It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como. Its proximity to Lake Como and ...

. His performance featured the

slide guitar Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object (a slide) against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos tha ...

ist Kenny Brown, Burnside's friend and understudy, whom he began tutoring in 1971 and claimed as his "adopted son". In 1978 Burnside was filmed by

Alan Lomax Alan Lomax (; January 31, 1915 – July 19, 2002) was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music of the 20th century. He was also a musician himself, as well as a folklorist, archivist, writer, sch ...

in what remained mostly outtakes of the television documentary ''The Land Where the Blues Began''. A series of recordings in 1979 by the musicologist

David Evans David, Dave, or Dai Evans may refer to: Academics * Sir David Emrys Evans (1891–1966), Welsh classicist and university principal * David Evans (microbiologist) (1909–1984), British microbiologist * David Stanley Evans (1916–2004), British a ...

for his record label

High Water Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide tables can ...

was the first to feature Burnside's Sound Machine, which included his sons Duwayne and Daniel on guitar, his son Joseph on bass, and his son-in-law Calvin Jackson on drums.
Part 1
The band was active mostly in home settings but also joined Burnside in Europe in 1980 and 1983. They offered a rare fusion of

rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are describ ...

and

urban blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the African- ...

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

, R&B and

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...

, which appealed to young Mississippians; their sets included covers of songs by Jimmy Rogers,

Little Walter Marion Walter Jacobs (May 1, 1930 – February 15, 1968), known as Little Walter, was an American blues musician, singer, and songwriter, whose revolutionary approach to the harmonica had a strong impact on succeeding generations, earning him ...

, Albert King and Little Milton. An EP, ''Sound Machine Groove'', was released by Evans's label in the US but had next to no distribution. Apart from it, one full album of the same title, a debut of sorts, was licensed for prompt European release by

Disques Vogue Disques Vogue was a jazz record company founded in France by Léon Cabat and Charles Delaunay in 1947, the year after the American Vogue label ceased. They originally specialized in jazz, featuring American performers such as Sidney Bechet, D ...

, and another hour's worth was released by the Memphis label Inside Sounds in 2001. From 1980 to 1986, Burnside recorded for the Dutch label Old Swingmaster and for the French label Arion, mostly solo or with harmonica accompaniment:

Johnny Woods Johnny Woods (November 1, 1917 – February 1, 1990) was an American blues singer and harmonica player in the north Mississippi hill country blues style. Woods was born in Looxahoma, Mississippi, a small town just west of Mississippi Highway ...

served on some occasions (he also recorded as a lead artist, with guitar accompaniment by Burnside); Curtis Salgado served once in a New Orleans session. Selections focused on hill country material and starker, less danceable songs by Lightnin' Hopkins, Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker. The results were four more LP releases and a videotape under his name, all in European markets. In the mid-1980s Burnside retired from farm work and became more busy with the music. For about 12 years he worked with

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

–based harpist Jon (Joni) Morris Neremberg (or Nuremberg). He appeared before American crowds at such occasions as the

1982 World's Fair The 1982 World's Fair, officially known as the Knoxville International Energy Exposition (KIEE) and simply as Energy Expo '82 and Expo '82, was an international exposition held in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. Focused on energy and ele ...

, the

1984 Louisiana World Exposition The 1984 Louisiana World Exposition was a World's Fair held in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. It was held 100 years after the city's earlier World's Fair, the World Cotton Centennial in 1884. It opened on Saturday, May 12, 1984, and ende ...

, and the 1986 San Francisco Blues Festival, between international tours. By the mid-1980s he toured about "once a year or maybe twice", and by one report in 1985 he had been to Europe 17 times. Recordings from his time with Morris were eventually released on two records, both produced by M.C. Records and

Louis X. Erlanger Louis X. Erlanger (born June 3, 1952, New York City) is an American rock and roll and blues guitarist best known for his work with the band Mink DeVille. Erlanger recorded three albums with the band: ''Cabretta'' (1977), ''Return to Magenta'' (19 ...

: ''Acoustic Stories'' (a session from 1988) and ''Well, Well, Well'' (a 2001 compilation of informal recordings provided by Morris).

1991–2005: Commercial success and declining health

In the late seventies or early eighties Burnside was introduced and struck a partnership with Junior Kimbrough. Roughly a decade later, his own "Burnside Palace" had shut down and the family lived next to the Kimbroughs' new "Junior's Place" in Chulahoma, Mississippi and collaborated with the counterpart musical family. The music writer Robert Palmer, teaching for a time in the University of Mississippi in Oxford, frequented the scene with some celebrity musicians, which led to the making in 1990 of the documentary ''

Deep Blues ''Deep Blues: A Musical Pilgrimage to the Crossroads'' is a British documentary film, released in 1991, and made by music critic and author Robert Palmer and documentary film maker Robert Mugge, in collaboration with David A. Stewart and his brot ...

'', in which Burnside was prominently featured. Burnside began recording for the Oxford, Mississippi, label Fat Possum Records in 1991. The label, dedicated to recording aging north Mississippi bluesmen such as Burnside and Junior Kimbrough, was founded by two students who had been attending their performances for some years—Peter Redvers-Lee, editor of ''

Living Blues ''Living Blues: The Magazine of the African American Blues Tradition'' is a bi-monthly magazine focused on blues music, and America's oldest blues periodical. The magazine was founded as a quarterly in Chicago in 1970 by Jim O'Neal and Amy van Sin ...

magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...

, and Matthew Johnson, a writer for the magazine. Burnside remained with Fat Possum from that time until his death. Their first output was ''Bad Luck City'' (1992), featuring the Sound Machine. The next, ''Too Bad Jim'' (1994), was recorded at Junior's Place and produced by Palmer, with support from Calvin Jackson and Kenny Brown. Robert Palmer. Liner notes to ''Too Bad Jim'', 1994.
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After Jackson moved to Holland,Cedric Burnside and Kenny Brown. Interview. ''

Jefferson Blues Magazine ''Jefferson Blues Magazine'' is a Swedish blues magazine. It is published by the Swedish Blues Association (SBA). The first issue was published in the spring 1968, which makes it the oldest blues magazine still in print in the world. The Finnish ...

'', Issue 141, March 2004
Swedish original
via Google Translate Burnside found a new stable band and would usually perform with Brown and drummer Cedric Burnside, his grandson. R.L. played his first art museum gig when

Grammy The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...

nominee/producer Larry Hoffman brought him to Baltimore to play the

Walters Art Museum The Walters Art Museum, located in Mount Vernon-Belvedere, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, is a public art museum founded and opened in 1934. It holds collections established during the mid-19th century. The museum's collection was amassed ...

in February, 1993 as the feature of a Baltimore Folk Music Society concert. In a New York concert around the release of the documentary ''Deep Blues'', he attracted the attention of

, the leader of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. He started touring with this group in 1995, both as an

opening act A opening act, also known as a warm-up act, support act, or supporting act, is an entertainment act (musical, comedic, or otherwise), that performs at a concert before the featured act, or "headliner". Rarely, an opening act may perform again a ...

and sitting in, gaining many new fans. The 1996 album ''

A Ass Pocket of Whiskey ''A Ass Pocket of Whiskey'' is the seventh studio album by the American Mississippi Hill Country Bluesman R.L. Burnside and the American punk blues band Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, released on Matador Records on 18 June 1996. Unusually, ''The Pe ...

'' was recorded with Spencer's band and was marketed for their audience, but was credited to Burnside. It gained critical acclaim and received praise from

Bono Paul David Hewson (born 10 May 1960), known by his stage name Bono (), is an Irish singer-songwriter, activist, and philanthropist. He is the lead vocalist and primary lyricist of the rock band U2. Born and raised in Dublin, he attended M ...

and

Iggy Pop James Newell Osterberg Jr. (born April 21, 1947), known professionally as Iggy Pop, is an American singer, musician, songwriter and actor. Called the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Godfather of Punk", he was the vocalist and lyricist of ...

; ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' magazine wrote that "it sounds like no other blues album ever released" and an author there picked it for a year's end critics' poll, but ''

'' opined that it was "perhaps the worst blues album ever made."Cited in After parting ways with the Blues Explosion, the label turned to produce music in which recorded materials were

remix A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...

ed by producer Tom Rothrock with an eye to

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often ch ...

, downtempo and hip-hop listeners. The experiment started with a track in ''Mr. Wizard'' (1997), an album based on a variety of sessions, and matured into a full album with '' Come On In'' (1998). The recording artists themselves heard only the final product, but they conceded that with time they came to like it, in part influenced by its popularity. Burnside continued to tour, perhaps more extensively than ever. He opened for the

Beastie Boys Beastie Boys were an American rap rock group from New York City, formed in 1978. The group was composed of Mike D, Michael "Mike D" Diamond (vocals, drums), Adam Yauch, Adam "MCA" Yauch (vocals, bass), and Ad-Rock, Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz (voca ...

, was a musical guest on '' Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' and on HBO's ''

Reverb Reverberation (also known as reverb), in acoustics, is a persistence of sound, after a sound is produced. Reverberation is created when a sound or signal is reflected causing numerous reflections to build up and then decay as the sound is abso ...

'', provided entertainment at private events such as Richard Gere's birthday party, and participated in shared or showcase bills with other Fat Possum artists, notably

T-Model Ford James Lewis Carter Ford (probably June 24, 1923 – July 16, 2013) was an American blues musician, using the name T-Model Ford. Unable to remember his exact date of birth, he began his musical career in his early 70s, and continuously record ...

Paul "Wine" Jones Paul "Wine" Jones (July 1, 1946 – October 9, 2005) was an American contemporary blues guitarist and singer. Music writer Paul Du Noyer noted that Jones, R. L. Burnside, Big Jack Johnson, Roosevelt "Booba" Barnes and James "Super Chika ...

CeDell Davis Ellis CeDell Davis (June 9, 1926 – September 27, 2017) was an American blues guitarist and singer. He was most notable for his distinctive style of guitar playing. Davis played guitar using a butter knife in his fretting hand in a manner simil ...

, Robert Cage and

Robert Belfour Robert "Wolfman" Belfour (September 11, 1940 – February 24, 2015) was an American blues musician. He was born in Red Banks, Mississippi. When he was a child, his father, Grant Belfour, taught him to play the guitar, and he continued his tut ...

. An influx of visitors and young musicians were attracted to Junior's Place, but it burned down in 2000. Documentary coverage of his contemporaneous life and work expanded too.

Bradley Beesley Bradley Beesley is an American Independent film and video director, producer and cinematographer. Born in Oklahoma and based in Austin, Texas, he "has made a cinematic career documenting oddball Americana, strange sub-cultures and homegrown rock ...

filmed the 60-minute ''Hill Stomp Hollar'', a film about Burnside and other Fat Possum artists, that received a positive response at the 1999 SXSW Film Festival premiere, but that was not approved for release by the label. Much of Beesley's footage and many of his interviews became part of the 77-minute ''You See Me Laughin'', directed by

Mandy Stein Mandy Stein (born January 14, 1975) is an American film producer and film director. Her parents are Seymour Stein and Linda S. Stein. Early life Stein was born in Manhattan. She graduated from Kent School Kent School is a private, co-educa ...

; it was released by Fat Possum in 2003. A 1999 date at Paris' "l New Morning club, with Brown and Cedric, was an occasion at which the French blues singer Sophie Kay (also known as Sophie Kertesz) filmed a 52-minute documentary. Before long, however, Burnside was in declining health. He had an ear infection and underwent

heart surgery Cardiac surgery, or cardiovascular surgery, is surgery on the heart or great vessels performed by cardiac surgeons. It is often used to treat complications of ischemic heart disease (for example, with coronary artery bypass grafting); to corr ...

in 1999. As his tours decreased to a minimum, ''Wish I Was In Heaven Sitting Down'' (2000) was released, which relegated guitar work to other players ( Rick Holmstrom, Smokey Hormel, John Porter) but used Burnside's vocals. After a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

in 2001, his doctor advised him to stop drinking; Burnside did, but he reported that change left him unable to play. Fat Possum rebounded with ''A Bothered Mind'' (2004), an album that used previously recorded guitar tracks, and included collaborations with

Kid Rock Robert James Ritchie (born January 17, 1971), known professionally as Kid Rock (also known as Bobby Shazam), is an American singer, songwriter and rapper. His style alternates between rock, hip hop, country, and metal. A self-taught musician, ...

and

Lyrics Born Tsutomu "Tom" Shimura (born September 2, 1972), better known by his stage name Lyrics Born (formerly Asia Born), is a Japanese-American rapper, singer, and producer. He is one half of the duo Latyrx with Lateef the Truthspeaker. Early life Shim ...

. These remix albums received mixed reviews, some describing the results as "unnatural" while others lauded the playful spirit, or "the way it yokes authentic blues feeling to new technology". Commercially, the remixes were successful; each surpassed its previous in Billboard's Top Blues Albums chart, as they stayed there for 12–18 weeks' periods (but none entered into the more competitive

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by '' Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 ...

), and two tracks from ''Come On In'' were included in ''The Sopranos'' soundtrack. "Let My Baby Ride" off ''Come On In'' received significant airplay and an ensuing

music clip Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect o ...

was slotted in MTV's ''

120 Minutes ''120 Minutes'' is a television program in the United States dedicated to the alternative music genre, that originally aired on MTV from 1986 to 2000, and then aired on MTV's associate channel MTV2 from 2001 to 2003. After its cancellation, MTV ...

''; the album's "Rollin' & Tumblin'" accompanied a 2002

Nissan , trade name, trading as Nissan Motor Corporation and often shortened to Nissan, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Japan. The company sells ...

TV commercial. But the live, unremixed album ''Burnside on Burnside'' (2001) peaked at number 4 of Billboard's Blues Albums chart and was nominated for a Grammy. - the last article to catch Burnside as an active bandleader, recorded in January 2001 with Brown and Cedric. In between, Fat Possum licensed and released ''First Recording'' (2003), comprising George Mitchell's 1967 recordings in its fullest edition yet, in traditional format. In addition, the 1990s and 2000s saw release of several recordings from previous decades by other labels (see above), as well as a couple of new recordings by HighTone Records.

Death and legacy

Another heart attack in November 2002 resulted in a surgery in 2003, and short-circuited any future career plans he had. Yet Burnside continued as guest singer on occasions, such as at

Bonnaroo Music Festival The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival is an American annual four-day music festival developed and founded by Superfly Presents and AC Entertainment. Since its first year in 2002, it has been held at what is now Great Stage Park on a farm in ...

, 2004, his last public appearance. He died at St. Francis Hospital in

, on September 1, 2005, at the age of 78. Services were held at

Rust College Rust College is a private historically black college in Holly Springs, Mississippi. Founded in 1866, it is the second-oldest private college in the state. Affiliated with the United Methodist Church, it is one of ten historically black colleges ...

, in Holly Springs, with burial in the Free Springs Cemetery, in Harmontown. Around the time of his death, he resided in

Byhalia, Mississippi Byhalia , is a town in Marshall County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 1,302 as of the 2010 census. History Byhalia was founded in the 1830s and named after Byhalia Creek, which flows past the site. Geography According to the U ...

. His immediate survivors included: *His wife: Alice Mae Taylor Burnside (1932–2008), married 1949 *His daughters: Mildred Jean Burnside (1949–2010), Linda Jackson, Brenda Kay Brooks, and Pamela Denise Burnside *His sons: Melvin Burnside, R.L. Burnside Jr. (1954–2010), Calvin Burnside, Joseph Burnside, Daniel Burnside, Duwayne Burnside, Dexter Burnside, Garry Burnside, and Rodger Harmon *His sisters: Lucille Burnside, Verelan Burnside, and Mat Burnside *His brother: Jesse Monia *His 35 grandchildren: Cedric Burnside *32 great-grandchildren Members of his extended family continue to play blues in the Holly Springs area and in wider circles: *His son Duwayne Burnside has played guitar with the

North Mississippi Allstars North Mississippi Allstars is an American blues and southern rock band from Hernando, Mississippi, founded in 1996. The band is currently composed of brothers Luther Dickinson (guitar, lowebow, vocals) and Cody Dickinson (drums, keyboards, elect ...

(''Polaris''; ''Hill Country Revue with R. L. Burnside''). He has operated music venues named after Burnside and Alice Mae in Chulahoma, Memphis,

Waterford "Waterford remains the untaken city" , mapsize = 220px , pushpin_map = Ireland#Europe , pushpin_map_caption = Location within Ireland##Location within Europe , pushpin_relief = 1 , coordinates ...

, and Holly Springs. *His grandson Cedric Burnside has released six albums with four musical partners and toured with Kenny Brown and others. *His son Garry Burnside used to play bass guitar with Junior Kimbrough, North Mississippi Allstars, and Hill Country Revue; in 2006 he released an album with Cedric. *His son-in-law Calvin Jackson (died 2015) recorded with blues musicians of Burnside's generation and younger. *His grandson Kent Burnside is also a touring blues musician. Kent is currently touring with the Flood Brothers and released an album with them in 2016. *His grandson Cody (died 2012) was also a musician. Kenny Brown has released four albums and toured with the family and his own band. Burnside won one W. C. Handy Award in 2000 (Traditional Blues Male Artist of the Year), two in 2002 (Traditional Blues Male Artist of the Year; Traditional Blues Album of the Year, ''Burnside on Burnside''), and one in 2003 (Traditional Blues Male Artist of The Year); he had 11 unsuccessful nominations in 8 years for the awards, starting in 1982, as well as one for a Grammy. Several of the Mississippi Blues Trail markers, which have been erected since 2006, mention him. In 2014 he was inducted to the Blues Hall of Fame in Memphis. Burnside's fellow Fat Possum musicians The Black Keys credit him as an influence and interpolated his "Skinny Woman" into their track " Busted". The Black Keys would perform two Burnside covers on their album Delta Kream in 2021 featuring Kenny Brown. Brown along with bassist Eric Deaton would also join The Black Keys for their 2022 tour (supporting the release of

Dropout Boogie ''Dropout Boogie'' is the eleventh studio album by American rock duo the Black Keys. It was released on May 13, 2022, by Easy Eye Sound and Nonesuch Records. The album was preceded by the release of two singles: the lead single "Wild Child", whic ...

) to perform the Burnside covers live. The electronica musician St. Germain used samples of Burnside's "Nightmare Blues" throughout the track "How Dare You", on his 2015 album.

Style

Burnside had a powerful, expressive voice, that did not fail with old age but rather grew richer, and played both electric and

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

, with and without a

slide Slide or Slides may refer to: Places * Slide, California, former name of Fortuna, California Arts, entertainment, and media Music Albums * ''Slide'' (Lisa Germano album), 1998 * ''Slide'' (George Clanton album), 2018 *''Slide'', by Patrick Glees ...

. His

drone Drone most commonly refers to: * Drone (bee), a male bee, from an unfertilized egg * Unmanned aerial vehicle * Unmanned surface vehicle, watercraft * Unmanned underwater vehicle or underwater drone Drone, drones or The Drones may also refer to: ...

-heavy style was more characteristic of

North Mississippi hill country blues Hill country blues (also known as North Mississippi hill country blues or North Mississippi blues) is a regional style of country blues. It is characterized by a strong emphasis on rhythm and percussion, steady guitar riffs, few chord changes, unco ...

than

Delta blues Delta blues is one of the earliest-known styles of blues. It originated in the Mississippi Delta, and is regarded as a regional variant of country blues. Guitar and harmonica are its dominant instruments; slide guitar is a hallmark of the s ...

. Like other country blues musicians, he did not always adhere to strict 12- or 16-bar blues patterns, often adding extra beats to a measure as he saw fit. Lou Erlanger. Liner notes to ''Acoustic Stories'' (1989/1997) His

rhythm Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular recu ...

s are often based on the

fife and drum blues Fife and drum blues is an American folk music form derived from country blues, martial music tradition, and African rhythms. It is performed typically with one lead fife player and a troop of drummers. Unlike a drum corps, the drum troop is l ...

of north Mississippi. As was the case with his role model

, Burnside's earliest recordings sound quite similar to one another, even repetitive, in vocal and instrumental styling. Many of these songs eschew traditional

chord changes In a musical composition, a chord progression or harmonic progression (informally chord changes, used as a plural) is a succession of chords. Chord progressions are the foundation of harmony in Western musical tradition from the common practice ...

in favor of a single

chord Chord may refer to: * Chord (music), an aggregate of musical pitches sounded simultaneously ** Guitar chord a chord played on a guitar, which has a particular tuning * Chord (geometry), a line segment joining two points on a curve * Chord ( ...

or a simple

bassline Bassline (also known as a bass line or bass part) is the term used in many styles of music, such as blues, jazz, funk, Dub music, dub and electronic music, electronic, traditional music, traditional, or classical music for the low-pitched Part ( ...

pattern that repeats throughout. Burnside played the guitar fingerstyle—without a pick—and often in

open-G tuning Among alternative tunings for the guitar, an open G tuning is an open tuning that features the G-major chord; its open notes are selected from the notes of a G-major chord, such as the G-major triad (G,B,D). For example, a popular open-G tunin ...

.Arhoolie 1042 (1969) leaflet
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His vocal style is characterized by a tendency to "break" briefly into

falsetto ''Falsetto'' (, ; Italian diminutive of , "false") is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ligamentous ed ...

, usually at the end of long notes. Like his contemporary

, Burnside favored a stripped-down approach to the blues, marked by a quality of rawness. He and his later managers and reviewers maintained his persona as a hard-working man leading a life of struggle, a heavy drinker, latent criminal singing songs of swagger and rebellion. Burnside knew many toasts—African American narrative folk poems such as "

Signifying monkey The signifying monkey is a character of African-American folklore that derives from the trickster figure of Yoruba mythology, Esu Elegbara. This character was transported with Africans to the Americas under the names of Exu, Echu-Elegua, Papa L ...

" and "Tojo Told Hitler"—and fondly recited them between songs at his concerts and on recordings. He narrated long

joke A joke is a display of humour in which words are used within a specific and well-defined narrative structure to make people laugh and is usually not meant to be interpreted literally. It usually takes the form of a story, often with dialogue, ...

s in concerts and social events,E.g. on ''Well, Well, Well'' (2001) and ''Burnside on Burnside'' (2001) and many sources noted his quick wit and charisma.

Discography

Studio albums

* ''Sound Machine Groove'' (1981) * ''Plays and Sings the Mississippi Delta Blues'' (1981) * ''Mississippi Hill Country Blues'' (1987) * ''Skinny Woman'' (1989) * ''Bad Luck City'' (1992) * ''Too Bad Jim'' (1994) * ''

'' (1996) * ''Mr. Wizard'' (1997) * ''Acoustic Stories'' (1997) * '' Come On In'' (1998) * ''Wish I Was in Heaven Sitting Down'' (2000) * ''

A Bothered Mind ''A Bothered Mind'' is the thirteenth and final studio album from American blues musician R. L. Burnside. It was the last release from the musician prior to his death in 2005. Following a heart attack in 2001, Burnside ceased to drink alcohol at ...

'' (2004)

Live albums

* ''Mississippi Blues'' (1984) * ''Burnside on Burnside'' (2001)

Compilation albums

* ''Going Down South'' (1999) * ''My Black Name a-Ringin (1999) * ''Well, Well, Well'' (2001) * ''Raw Electric'' (2002) * ''No Monkeys on this Train'' (2003) * ''First Recordings'' (2003) * ''Rollin' and Tumblin': the King of Hill Country Blues'' (2010) * ''Long Distance Call'' (2019)

Films

*''Honky Tonk'' (1974), by

*''The Land Where the Blues Began'' (1979) by Alan Lomax,

John Melville Bishop John Melville Bishop (born April 4, 1946, in North Dakota) is a contemporary, U.S., documentary filmmaker known for the breadth of his collaborations, primarily in the fields of anthropology and folklore. He has worked with Alan Lomax, John Marshall ...

, and Worth Long in association with the Mississippi Authority for Educational Television **''American Patchwork: Songs and Stories of America'', part 3: "The Land Where the Blues Began" (1990), North Carolina Public TV, a lightly re-edited version of "The Land Where the Blues Began" (1979)
''The Land Where the Blues Began'' (2010)
restored original version, DVD containing two additional performances by Burnside *'' Deep Blues: A Musical Pilgrimage to the Crossroads'' (1991), directed by

Robert Mugge Robert Mugge (born May 8, 1950) is an American documentary film maker. He has focused primarily on films about music and musicians, but some of his earliest films were not music focused and he is now continuing to branch out as his interests and ...

*''Hill Stomp Hollar'' (1999), by

*
Un jour avec... R. L. Burnside
' (1999/2001), by Sophie Kertesz, produced and distributed by Ciné-Rock, Paris *''You See Me Laughin': The Last of the Hill Country Bluesmen'' (2002), released by Fat Possum Records in 2005, produced and directed by

, Oxford, Mississippi: Plain Jane Productions, Fat Possum Records *''Richard Johnston: Hill Country Troubadour'' (2005), directed by Max Shores, Alabama PBS, featuring an interview with Burnside and information about the Holly Springs music community *''

Big Bad Love ''Big Bad Love'' is a 2001 film directed by Arliss Howard, who co-wrote the script with his brother, James Howard, based on a collection of short stories of the same name by Larry Brown.Arliss Howard, with soundtrack songs by Burnside and a cameo live performance, MGM/IFC Films *'' Holy Motors'' (2012), directed by Leos Carax, with an accordion and drum cover of "Let My Baby Ride" by Docteur L

Notes

References

External links

*
Fat Possum artist website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burnside, R. L. 1926 births 2005 deaths 20th-century African-American male singers American blues guitarists American male guitarists American blues singers Country blues musicians Juke Joint blues musicians Blues musicians from Mississippi Fat Possum Records artists People from Lafayette County, Mississippi People from Holly Springs, Mississippi 20th-century American guitarists Guitarists from Mississippi People from Byhalia, Mississippi African-American guitarists