R. L. Burnside (November 23, 1926 – September 1, 2005) was an American hill country blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He played music for most of his life but received little recognition until 1995 when Burnside recorded and toured with Jon Spencer, garnering crossover appeal and introducing his music to a new fan base, particularly in the punk and garage rock scenes.
Life and career
1926–1959: Early years
Burnside was born in 1926 to Earnest Burnside and Josie Malone, in either Harmontown, 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., Rural, He learned mostly from Mississippi Fred McDowell, who had lived near Burnside since Burnside was a child. He first heard McDowell playing at age 7 or 8 Other local teachers were his wife's brother, the mostly unknown Henry Harden, Burnside cited church singing and fife-and-drum picnics as elements of his childhood's musical landscape, and he credited Muddy Waters, Lightnin' Hopkins, and John Lee Hooker as influences in adulthood. he moved to Chicago, where his father had lived since he separated from his mother, had the company of Muddy Waters (his cousin-in-law), 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 counties, in northern Mississippi. At first he kept to particularly remote dwellings, and as a truck driver. Later he moved closer to Holly Springs. After coming back to Mississippi, and especially after marrying, he picked more local gigs, at picnics and at his own open house parties, He came to Burnside's house near Coldwater on the advice of fife player and maker Othar Turner. Mitchell wrote that Fred McDowell had not told him about Burnside, likely because Burnside posed "big-time competition". 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, not to be released until thirty years later. Recordings from 1975 had a similar fate.
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. 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 filmed Burnside in the Brotherhood Sportsmen's Lodge, a juke joint he ran at the time near Como. His performance featured the slide guitarist Kenny Brown, Burnside's friend and understudy, whom he began tutoring in 1971 and claimed as his "adopted son". The band was active mostly in home settings but also joined Burnside in Europe in 1980 Apart from it, one full album of the same title, a debut of sorts, was licensed for prompt European release by Disques Vogue,
In the mid-1980s, Burnside retired from farm work and became more busy with music. He appeared before American crowds at such occasions as the 1982 World's Fair, the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition, between international tours. By the mid-1980s he toured about "once a year or maybe twice",
1991–2005: Commercial success and declining health
thumb|left|180px|Burnside at the [[Liri Blues Festival, Italy, in 1992]]
In the late 1970s or early 1980s, Burnside was introduced and struck a partnership with Junior Kimbrough. and the family lived next to the Kimbroughs' new Junior's Place in Chulahoma, Mississippi and collaborated with the counterpart musical family. was founded by two students who had been attending their performances for some years—Peter Redvers-Lee, editor of Living Blues magazine, 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. After Jackson moved to Holland, 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 nominee/producer Larry Hoffman brought him to Baltimore to play the Walters Art Museum 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 Jon Spencer, the leader of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. It gained critical acclaim and received praise from Bono and Iggy Pop; Billboard magazine wrote that "it sounds like no other blues album ever released" but Living Blues opined that it was "perhaps the worst blues album ever made".