In Heaven Sitting Down

R.L. Burnside & JSBX - The Criminal Inside Me
R.L. Burnside - Goin' Down South
R.L. Burnside - Snake Drive
R.L. Burnside - R.L.'s Story


I heard some sad news today. One of my favorite all-time bluesmen, my favorite living bluesman, has passed away. In a Memphis hospital this morning, R.L. Burnside died. For this post I've included four personal selections to show the different sides of the man known as Rural.

Like many others, my introduction to R.L. was in 1996 via 'A Ass Pocket Of Whiskey', the album he recorded one afternoon in his homestate of Mississippi with the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. Raw'n'dirty, loud'n'nasty, just how I like it. I was so stunned that none of the local "blues" radio shows were playing this record that I started one myself. Seeing R.L. and Jon Spencer recreate the 40 nickels for a bag of potato chips sketch in a large tent in Byron Bay was absolutely incredible.

As much as I like the new R.L. material (even some the remixes), it's the stripped back old stuff that really floats my boat. 'Goin' Down South' is an R.L. original and it appears on most of his releases. It's his signature song. This version is from a album entitled 'First Recordings' part of an amazing series of George Mitchell recordings put out by Fat Possum Records.

'Burnside on Burnside', the live album that came out in 2001 comes the closest to capturing the energy experienced at a R.L. Burnside show. He starts every song by saying "well well well" and sometimes includes a funny story or joke. Then the electricity begins in R.L.'s fingers, flows from his guitar to the P.A. and from there it hits you right in the hips and gets ya shaking uncontrollably in time to the music. His adopted son, Kenny Brown, plays killer electric slide and his grandson, Cedric, hits them drum skins real hard. Real hard.

'R.L.'s Story' from 'Wish I Was In Heaven Sitting Down' has R.L. telling how he lost two uncles, two brothers and his father in the same year. All murdered in Chicago. The music is ambient, atmospheric and beautiful, but heavy and sad to reflect the tragic nature of the tale.

R.L. Burnside, November 21, 1926 - September 1, 2005. R.I.P.

Fat Possum Records