MUSICBLITZ

MP3 Exclusives

New Arrivals

Alt-Country
Alternative
Blues
Electronic
Jambands
Jazz
Metal
Pop
Punk
R&B
Rap/Hip Hop
Reggae
Rock

Top Downloads
Features Archive
Contests
Control Panel
MUSICBLITZ Alert!

METALBLITZ
REGGAEBLITZ
BLUESBLITZ
Musician's Friend

Alt-Country
Alternative
Blues
Electronic
Jambands
Jazz
Hip Hop
Metal
Pop
Punk
R&B
Reggae
Rock

Getting Started
Free Players

	Welcome !

R.L. Burnside
R.L. Burnside: He’s lived the life of a B-movie script: long-forgotten delta bluesman is finally discovered at a ripe old age and becomes a star. But 73-year-old R.L. Burnside’s taken that premise and made it even weirder -- which is to say better. After all, no writer would have added the parts about the old bluesman becoming an alt-rock icon, or mixing his rustic tunes with up-to-the-minute electronic beats. You can’t think that was in the plans when Burnside was working a farmer near Oxford, MS, where he was born. In fact, though he learned guitar from “Mississippi” Fred McDowell and was a regular at juke joint get-togethers for a while in the ‘50s, he gave up music later that decade to start a family. He returned to the guitar part-time after a while, and made his first recordings in 1967 for archivist George Mitchell’s Arhoolie label. Those tunes won Burnside some short tours and festival gigs, and his young band, the Sound Machine -- which featured his sons Joseph and Daniel, plus brother-in-law Calvin Jackson -- gave Burnside’s rural grooves some extra kick. Yet it wasn’t until Burnside was featured in the early ‘90s movie “Deep Blues,” which took a look at Mississippi’s blues past and present, that his stock really started to soar. Rock crit du jour Robert Palmer, who guided the film, was impressed enough to produce Burnside’s studio debut for the Fat Possum label, 1994’s Too Bad Jim. The raw electric blues caught the ear of more than just adoring critics; alt-rock guitarist Jon Spencer took Burnside on the road, and he and his band, the Blues Explosion, backed Burnside on the raucous A Ass Pocket of Whiskey in 1996. That made Burnside’s rep with the younger crowd, but he wasn’t through -- after a followup, 1997’s Mr. Wizard, he teamed up with Beck collaborator Tom Rothrock and Digital hardcore mainman Alec Empire, and put some phat beats behind his wailing slide on 1998’s genre-busting Come On In. Beck’s disc-flipper DJ Swamp came on board for Burnside’s 2000 Fat Possum release, Wish I Was In Heaven Sittin’ Down.


R.L. Burnside	Bad Luck City	LiquidAudio,MP3	Blues
Can you get behind the idea of Fat Possum's premier bluesman posing as an old-school soul crooner? Then check out this bizarre but hypnotic track from R.L.'s latest record!
R.L. Burnside	Come On In (Live)	MP3	Blues
Rough, raw and ready, this live hit of barbed-wire blues from R.L. Burnside is the real Mississippi deal!
R.L. Burnside	Hard Time Killing Floor	MP3	Blues
In an age where teenaged Kenny-Wayne-Jonny-come-latelys are being mistaken for old bluesmen, it’s refreshing to hear an old bluesman who really is an old bluesman. Man, this is the real deal: downtrodden, despairing, and despondent. Oh yeah!