R.L. Burnside

Mississippi Hill Country Blues (Fat Possum)
by Jon Sarre

The newish Mississippi Hill Country Blues material has been available in Europe since the mid-’80s and was recorded between 1980 and 1984 (but there’re also three “field” cuts from 1967). The title’s a pretty good indicator of what the music sounds like: R.L. Burnside plays acoustic, nodding his guitar to Fred McDowell and Ranie Burnette as well as to the long Mississippi tradition of fife and drum bands (so say the liners notes anyway; I had no idea beyond Othar Turner that fife’n’drum occurred anywhere outside the occasional parade).

Anyhow, this stuff covers about fifty years of the guy’s experience in music and the 19 tracks are nice counterpoints to his more “modern” releases. This disc is sure to impress all yer hip booty-shakin’ friends, ‘specially if ya can convince those twerps that “Old Man Music” is obviously the new cool.
(PO Box 1923 Oxford, MS 38655)