R. L. Burnside

R. L. Burnside (born Robert Lee Burnside, Harmontown, Lafayette County, Mississippi, November 21 or November 23, 1926; d. Memphis, Tennessee, September 1, 2005) was a blues singer, songwriter and guitarist who lived much of his life in and around Holly Springs, Mississippi.

Biography

Burnside spent most of his life in the rural hill country of northern Mississippi, working as a sharecropper and a commercial fisherman, as well as playing guitar at weekend house parties. He was first inspired to pick up the guitar in his early twenties, after hearing the 1948 John Lee Hooker single "Boogie Chillen" (which inspired numerous other rural bluesmen, among them Buddy Guy, to start playing). He 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.

Related Topics:
Sharecropper - 1948 - John Lee Hooker - Boogie Chillen - Buddy Guy - Fred McDowell - Muddy Waters

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During the 1950s Burnside moved to Chicago where a number of members of his family were murdered; after these killings Burnside returned to his home state. Burnside claimed to have been convicted for murder and sentenced to six months' incarceration for the crime. 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. "I didn't mean to kill nobody," Burnside later said. "I just meant to shoot the sonofabitch in the head. Him dying was between him and the Lord." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/09/03/db0302.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/09/03/ixportal.html

Related Topics:
1950s - Chicago - Murder

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His earliest recordings were made in the late 1960s by 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. An album's worth of singles followed, released on ethnomusicology professor Dr. David Evans' Highwater Records label in Memphis, Tennessee.

Related Topics:
1980s - Ethnomusicology - Memphis, Tennessee

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The Oxford, Mississippi, label Fat Possum Records was founded by Living Blues magazine editor Peter Lee and Matthew Johnson, and was dedicated to recording aging North Mississippi bluesmen such as Burnside and his friend Junior Kimbrough. Burnside remained with Fat Possum from that time until his death, and since usually performed with his friend and understudy, the white slide guitar player Kenny Brown, whom he began playing with in 1971 and claimed as his "adopted son."

Related Topics:
Oxford, Mississippi - Fat Possum Records - Slide guitar - Kenny Brown - 1971

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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.

Related Topics:
Jon Spencer - Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

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Since the death of Kimbrough and the burning of Kimbrough's juke joint in Chulahoma, Mississippi, Burnside quit recording studio material for Fat Possum, though he did continue to tour. After a heart attack in 2001, Burnside's doctor advised him to stop drinking; Burnside did, but he reported that change left him unable to play.

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Members of his large extended family continue to play blues in the Holly Springs area: grandson Cedric Burnside tours with Kenny Brown, while grandson Duwayne Burnside plays guitar with the North Mississippi Allstars (Polaris; Hill Country Revue with R.L. Burnside). "Duwayne Burnside and the Mississippi Mafia" recorded Live At the Mint in October 1997. Members included Cedric Burnside, Eddie Batos, Joe Hill from Alien Ant Farm, and David Kimbrough, Jr. (JR's son) with Duwayne's father R.L. sitting in on a few tracks. Duwayne and Mississippi Mafia's newest release expected out in March 2005, was recorded at Delta Studios in Clarksdale, Mississippi featuring James Mathus, rhythm guitar (Squirrel Nut Zippers), and Roy Cunningham on drums (Stax Sessions), Garry Burnside, bass guitar. 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, Mississippi.

Related Topics:
North Mississippi Allstars - Joe Hill - Alien Ant Farm - Clarksdale, Mississippi - Squirrel Nut Zippers - Holly Springs, Mississippi

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Burnside had been in declining health since heart surgery in 1999, and died in a hospital in Memphis, Tennessee on September 1, 2005 at the age of 78. He is survived by his wife Alice Mae, twelve children (including musicians Duwayne and Gary), and numerous grandchildren.

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