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Bluesman Burnside succumbs at 78
Performer brought blues to indie rock
By PHIL GALLO
HOLLYWOOD -- Blues guitarist and singer R.L. Burnside, who became a cult hero at the age of 65 when he started recording for the Fat Possum label and appearing on bills with rock acts, died Thursday in Memphis. He was 78 and had been in declining health.
A wild and raucous electric guitarist who made several of his albums in single sessions, was an out-of-the-blue discovery in 1990.
When most labels were looking for guitar-slinging clones of Stevie Ray Vaughan, Fat Possum built up a roster of elderly Mississippi musicians such as Burnside, Junior Kimbrough and Robert Belfour, who tapped into pre-WWII blues styles and performed with a raw, punklike energy.
Burnside and Kimbrough would often tour together with labelmates as part of the Fat Possum Revue, which played venues such as the House of Blues, various rock clubs and a host of blues festivals.
Burnside was the label's biggest seller over the years, especially after he went on several tours with the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and after Fat Possum albums received distribution through the punk imprint Epitaph.
Most of Burnside's life was spent in the north Mississippi hill country near Oxford, where he worked as a sharecropper and commercial fisherman plus played guitar at weekend house parties. Inspired to take up guitar by John Lee Hooker's "Boogie Chillun'," he was taught to play slide guitar by Mississippi Fred McDowell.
Burnside moved to Chicago, but he returned to Mississippi in 1959 after his father, brother and uncle were murdered.
He was first recorded, playing acoustic guitar, in 1967 for a compilation on the Arhoolie label. The recordings allowed Burnside to play festivals around the world, often with his sons Joseph and Daniel and son-in-law Calvin Jackson.
Fat Possum recorded nine Burnside albums, beginning with "Too Bad Jim" in 1991. That album, when it had no national distribution, sold fewer than 800 copies, but was written about extensively after Burnside appeared in the documentary "Deep Blues."
The 1998 release "Come On In" featured Burnside's music placed in an electronica setting that caught on with college radio. One of its tracks, "It's Bad You Know," was featured in "The Sopranos" and on its soundtrack. He was also featured in Mandy Stein's docu "You See Me Laughing" and appeared as himself in the pics "Big Bad Love" and "Tempted."
Burnside is survived by his wife Alice Mae, 12 children and numerous grandchildren, including Cederic Burnside, who had backed him on drums for the last 10 years.
Bluesman Burnside succumbs at 78
Performer brought blues to indie rock
By PHIL GALLO
HOLLYWOOD -- Blues guitarist and singer R.L. Burnside, who became a cult hero at the age of 65 when he started recording for the Fat Possum label and appearing on bills with rock acts, died Thursday in Memphis. He was 78 and had been in declining health.
A wild and raucous electric guitarist who made several of his albums in single sessions, was an out-of-the-blue discovery in 1990.
When most labels were looking for guitar-slinging clones of Stevie Ray Vaughan, Fat Possum built up a roster of elderly Mississippi musicians such as Burnside, Junior Kimbrough and Robert Belfour, who tapped into pre-WWII blues styles and performed with a raw, punklike energy.
Burnside and Kimbrough would often tour together with labelmates as part of the Fat Possum Revue, which played venues such as the House of Blues, various rock clubs and a host of blues festivals.
Burnside was the label's biggest seller over the years, especially after he went on several tours with the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and after Fat Possum albums received distribution through the punk imprint Epitaph.
Most of Burnside's life was spent in the north Mississippi hill country near Oxford, where he worked as a sharecropper and commercial fisherman plus played guitar at weekend house parties. Inspired to take up guitar by John Lee Hooker's "Boogie Chillun'," he was taught to play slide guitar by Mississippi Fred McDowell.
Burnside moved to Chicago, but he returned to Mississippi in 1959 after his father, brother and uncle were murdered.
He was first recorded, playing acoustic guitar, in 1967 for a compilation on the Arhoolie label. The recordings allowed Burnside to play festivals around the world, often with his sons Joseph and Daniel and son-in-law Calvin Jackson.
Fat Possum recorded nine Burnside albums, beginning with "Too Bad Jim" in 1991. That album, when it had no national distribution, sold fewer than 800 copies, but was written about extensively after Burnside appeared in the documentary "Deep Blues."
The 1998 release "Come On In" featured Burnside's music placed in an electronica setting that caught on with college radio. One of its tracks, "It's Bad You Know," was featured in "The Sopranos" and on its soundtrack. He was also featured in Mandy Stein's docu "You See Me Laughing" and appeared as himself in the pics "Big Bad Love" and "Tempted."
Burnside is survived by his wife Alice Mae, 12 children and numerous grandchildren, including Cederic Burnside, who had backed him on drums for the last 10 years.

