R.L. Burnside

With a raw, unrelenting approach to the electric guitar, R.L. Burnside was the foremost proponent of Mississippi hill country blues, though it took decades for him to achieve renown. Born in Lafayette County, MS, in 1926, he played harmonica as a child and learned guitar in his teens from blues legend Mississippi Fred McDowell and others. Burnside spent three years in Chicago, where he was befriended by his cousin-in-law Muddy Waters (a major influence), before returning to Mississippi in the early ’50s. He began touring in the late ’60s and was embraced by European blues lovers before he ever made major inroads in the States. Burnside’s recording career began with 1981’s Sound Machine Groove, where his almost incantatory vocals and fiery-but-hypnotic guitar style epitomized the hill country sound. But he didn’t really find fame until the ’90s, when he toured with indie icons The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and gained attention from the alt-rock audience with 1994’s Too Bad Jim and 1996’s Spencer-assisted A Ass Pocket of Whiskey. He gained even more crossover action two years later when electronic beats were added to his sound on Come On In. Burnside remained at the forefront of the blues scene until his 2005 death at the age of 78 in Memphis.