First, last weeks lyric, no one was able to get without Googling. The answer was “Caleb Meyer” by Gillian Welch, and covered by Nickel Creek. Now on to today’s installation of Music Fest Friday.
If you took a look at the music on my iPod you would probably notice two things. First, its a bit on the eclectic side, second, it has a lot more blues on it than you’d expect. One of my co-workers lent me an album a couple of years ago by Fat Possum Records called “Not the Same Old Blues Crap,” and in addition to popular acts (or relatively so) like Iggy Pop and The Black Keys was an artist that really didn’t get discovered until late in life. RL Burnside started life in rural Mississippi before moving to Chicago and ultimately back down south. He was at one point incarcerated for murder, about which he was later quoted as saying, “I just meant to shoot the sonofabitch in the head. Him dying was between him and the Lord.”
As for music, we’ll start with my favorite tune of his, Goin’ Down South.
Burnside died in 2005, just after I started hearing him a couple of years ago. His style was much more in the line of country blues than delta blues. I’d say he was influenced by Dylan because he doesn’t adhere to a strict 12 or 16 bar blues pattern…except he started out a touch before Dylan’s time. Here is his tune, “Shake ‘Em On Down.”
One of the thing I like about Burnside is that he never really confined himself to acoustic or electric guitar based blues. One thing that I think the blues genre is really missing today in the mainstream is acoustic based blues songs. The majority of what people are familiar with are the works of folks like BB King, Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, and while great musicians I’ve never seen them with an acoustic. In this tune, Jumper Hanging On A Line, RL is playing solo acoustic in an what appears to be an older recording.
I hope you’ve enjoyed a little bit of the Blues with RL Burnside on this Friday, the start of Lollapalooza here in Chicago. Now for the third installation of name that tune.
Six and three is nine
Nine and nine is eighteen
Look there brother baby and see what I’ve seen
Happy Friday!
2 responses so far ↓
1 p.s. // Aug 1, 2008 at 9:49 am
Oh come on….maybe it’s because the 151 covers it all the time, but really i feel like anyone that makes their sweet home around these parts should know that one……..
2 MFF #4 — Steve Winwood // Aug 8, 2008 at 6:06 am
[…] to the fourth installation of Music Fest Friday. I hope you enjoyed last week’s spotlight of R.L. Burnside! The lyric last week was a bit of a gimme again, but only Phil bothered to hazard a guess, Sweet […]
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