Burnside on Burnside :: Education by Design Store

Editorial Review
Mississippi hill country patriarch R.L. Burnside's two previous albums dabbled in remixes and trip-hop experimentation geared to the college-rock market. This is a restorative: pure slide 'n' drone blues caught live in January 2001 at Portland, Oregon's Crystal Ballroom. The 73-year-old is joined by his usual jukehouse band, his drummer and grandson Cedric Burnside and guitarist Kenny Brown, who blow sparks behind Burnside's rich honey-and-molasses voice and chunky six-string affirmations. Every time Burnside hits a note, it's a reminder of both how vital an interpreter of the hypnotic style developed by Fred McDowell he remains and how true electric country blues still sounds in its unvarnished state.

Customer Reviews

Great live album and great slide guitar.

2008-05-15
I'm a young guy and just scratching the service on blues legends like R.L. Burnside. This is the first CD of his I've bought and I'm extremely happy that I purchased it.
R.L. has an absolutely perfect blues voice. His guitar playing along with Kenny Brown is incredible. The slide guitar is one of my favorite sounds on earth and they play it to perfection throughout the album.
My favorite songs are Shake Em' on Down, Rollin' and Tumblin', Goin' Down South, Skinny Women (which is covered by a great band named the The Black Keys they call their version "Busted"), and Bad Luck and Trouble. But my very favorite is Walkin' Blues. It's the total package. It's perfect in vocals, lyrics, emotion, slide guitar, and everything in between. I can't get enough of that song.
The only reason I'm not giving it 5 stars is because a couple of songs are repetitious of each other and don't stand out to me.
I would give this album a 4.5 stars but it won't let me.

Just shut up and buy it!

2007-01-03
Powerfull, driving and gets under your skin. Buy it and play it loud.
My favourite blues album in my collection.

Electric.

2006-12-31
It don't get no better than this. Burnside's best. I wish I could compare it to something, but ain't nothin' to compare it to.

Love it.

2006-12-22
Skinny woman though... anyone heard busted by the black keys? Same song... subtly different lyrics. Black keys came out first though... I think.

WOW

2005-04-10
This cat is good. Mesmerizing beat and tempo, he has the blues in his voice and his soul. A "must buy" for the down home blues lover. This is what it's all about.

Blues meets punk

2005-01-21
Mississippi hill country patriarch R.L. Burnside's two previous albums dabbled in remixes and trip-hop experimentation geared to the college-rock market. This is a restorative: pure slide 'n' drone blues caught live in January 2001 at Portland, Oregon's Crystal Ballroom. The 73-year-old is joined by his usual jukehouse band, his drummer and grandson Cedric Burnside and guitarist Kenny Brown, who blow sparks behind Burnside's rich honey-and-molasses voice and chunky six-string affirmations. Every time Burnside hits a note, it's a reminder of both how vital an interpreter of the hypnotic style developed by Fred McDowell he remains and how true electric country blues still sounds in its unvarnished state.

There's an emotional resonance that runs through this music like blood, especially when Burnside plays solo. His all-alone performances of "Walking Blues" and "Bad Luck and Trouble" reveal every nuance of his caw-to-keen singing and the sweet way his slide slices right to the emotional core of a lyric. Burnside's off-color jokes and song-ending punctuations (mostly buoyant "Well, well, wells") also give an inkling of the wild-ass grandpa charisma that makes him so appealing on stage. Burnside has, however, delivered better concerts. At times these tempos seem rushed, which sacrifices some of the subtleties of his vocalizing. But Brown unleashes a rabid slide solo on "Snakedrive" that shoots the tune skyward, and he and Cedric display relentless energy and thrust. All of which proves that, with John Lee Hooker now reclining upstairs, R.L. Burnside is the ruler of this music. --Ted Drozdowski

"Don't be so diiirty!" This is it -- Right here 2004-08-25
Fat Possum is putting out the best blues albums in the industry right now, and R.L. Burnside is one of the reasons why, along with Elmo Williams, Model T, and Paul Jones.

Despite being a fan of the Mississippi country blues exemplified by Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and John Hurt during my teens, I got sick of blues during the Nineties, when a well-deserved resurgence in the music became dominated by this Yuppified, sterilized, Good Morning America mood music crap with a bunch of sell-out albums by a lot of artists.

But after coming across Fat Possum's stuff, it's clear they know what's going on, and are putting out albums that about end up make you willing to drink warm JD cut with turpentine or something. The stuff is nasty, gritty, deserves no apology, and asks for none.

BURNSIDE ON BURNSIDE is already becoming a classic, because it takes these qualities and makes them live. It gives us the modern psycho-punk blues that are the only contemporary blues worth listening to, and brings new life to the traditional country tunes that every over-produced pseudo-blues hack with a drum machine has spent the past fifteen years killing off.

Burnside's grandson, Cedric, plays drums, and that's partially what gives it the unrelenting punk feel, as this old blues man yells and laughs along. It's great. It's unbeatable. And will give you back a passion for blues jamming.

Best blues album... ever. 2003-09-07
RL Burnside is making a case for the best bluesman that nobody knows. He's been around forever, but it's only been the last few years that his music has received the recognition that it deserves. He has several outstanding studio albums but the raw power of his music is at its best on this live recording. RL is the blues.

I've listened to all the great live blues recordings... BB, Buddy, Son House, Muddy, you name it. But there's something about Burnside that sets him apart from all of them. He is a truly great musician.

The measure of a great album is how quickly you listen to it a second time. With this one, I didn't take it out of my CD player for a week.

FIERCE BLUES 2003-01-30
If music could give you the feeling of being pistol whipped, this album would do it. The guitar here is fierce, aggressive, and wicked. You can't help but to turn this album up really loud as Burnside charges through some very intense soloing on "Jumper on the Line." His voice is raw and perfect for the powerful blues force he brings on this disc. Walking Blues, done a million times by many folks, sounds really amped up, while maintaining the slow dragged out feel and emotion of the song. The album ends with a tremendous jam in "Snake Drive" which displays some fiersome smokin' guitar play and really displays the talent of this band. Great stuff, pure blues power.

Transcendent 2002-09-21
First-rate live blues. R.L. Burnside is a true original, laying down a dense, intense, electric Mississippi drone with infinite variations woven through it. It is hard to believe that three performers could generate such a wall of sound (kudos to the engineers, by the way). In fact, on Burnside's mid-concert solos - "Walking Blues" and "Bad Luck and Trouble" - it takes a while to realize there is only one performer. The whole album is wonderful, but the last four cuts are transcendent, featuring Kenny Brown's slide guitar and, and (on the very last cut, by grandson Cedric Burnside) the best, and best-integrated, drum solo I've heard since Keith Moon was alive. A personal favorite is "Miss Maybelle" because of the quirky way Burnside varies tempos.