“Simple music is the hardest music to play and blues is simple music.”
- Albert Collins
They say the South begins in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel in downtown Memphis. I wouldn't argue that. If you drive from there, as Dylan said, down Highway 61, you'll be in the Mississippi Delta which has been called “The most Southern Place on Earth.” There will be no question in your mind why the music known as “The Blues” originated there. We have the Blues to thank, along with Gospel and Appalachian music, for what morphed into rock-n-roll.
The great black blues men and women to come out of that area are legends. The list would be exhaustive, but to name a few, Robert Johnson, B.B. King, Mississippi John Hurt, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Skip James, W.C. Handy, Son House, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Rosetta Tharpe, Howlin' Wolf, Charlie Patton, Pinetop Perkins…where to stop?
They all contribute a little something different to the uniquely American art form. If you're into it, you probably have a favorite or two. If you're not, it all probably sounds about the same.
Asked to name a favorite, I'd have to go with R.L. Burnside. Burnside was born in 1926 in Harmontown, MS. Like all of his musical contemporaries from that region, his life in the underclass was a struggle on many levels. To try and survive economically he worked over the years at various jobs- sharecropper, truck driver, foundry worker, fisherman, sold moonshine and played juke joint gigs.
He had begun playing guitar and harmonica in his youth, influenced by a nearby neighbor, Mississippi Fred McDowell. In the 1940s he moved to Chicago where his father lived after having separated from Burnside's mother. Hoping to find better economic opportunities, he took work in a glass factory and made the acquaintance of Muddy Waters who now lived and performed in the city. Burnside adopted some of Waters' slide guitar techniques and incorporated them into his own playing. After a short time, he moved back to Mississippi, finding Chicago too rough after his father, two brothers and two uncles were all murdered there in the span of a year.
At some point in the 1950s, Burnside served six months in Parchman Prison for manslaughter after having killed a man over a land dispute or a craps game, reasons vary depending on your source. He was released after six months at the behest of his influential sharecropper boss.
Sometime after that, he and his wife Alice moved to Holy Springs in north central MS and his sound, along with Junior Kimbrough and Skip James, became known as “Hill Country Blues.” Burnside's playing was known mostly to those only in the region until the mid-1960s when folklorist George Mitchell recorded some of his performances and made them available to blues fans. Throughout the 70s, 80s, and 90s, various people in the music industry continued to promote his work. It wasn't, however, until late in his life that music became his main source of income.
In the early 90s, newly formed Oxford, MS based Fat Possum Records began recording and releasing Burnside's music. In 1996 they teamed Burnside with the alternative group Jon Spencer and the Blues Explosion who along with other producers, added modern recording techniques such as sampling and looping to his work. The results introduced the artist to a new and younger crowd. Although the new sound resulted in a wider audience, in live performances, Burnside remained true to his own original style.
After several years of declining health, Burnside died on September 1, 2005 at my old place of employment, St. Francis Hospital in Memphis, TN.
Sometimes it's hard to pin down why you like a particular artist. I guess I like Burnside's funky groove and his wink-of-the-eye sense of humor. He seemed to be having a good time and wanted you to have one too. I liked how he'd say “Well, well, well” when his band was kicking into a song. I like his authentic story and all the elements that made for a life of playing the blues - murder, Parchman Farm, sharecropping, moonshine, juke joints. I like how he didn't seem to care much about self-promotion, he just liked playin'. I like that a bunch of young dudes realized his cool factor and wanted to spread it to their generation. I like that he was married to Alice for over 50 years. I like that when he happened to pass from this world it was in the place where I spent a decade of my life. I feel a connection to that. Those are a few reasons.