After 100 years of blues recording, you wouldn't think there was much new worth doing. I'm a lifelong blues fan, and I'll defend the art form until my death ..... but its not a genre of innovation or current discourse. By and large there's not been a pressing need to buy blues records beyond the chestnuts rereleased or recorded after the 60's and 70's blues revival.Except R.L. Burnside, a contemporary of Mississippi John Hurt, Fred McDowell, Skip James and Son House. Like his Mississippi brethren, he was largely unknown until old age. But unlike them, he chose not to live only in the past.
In 1998 he released Come On In, an experimental mix of acoustic blues with electronica production easily filed with the other curious artistic breakthroughs (Buffalo Girls) you never listen to.
But Come On In led to Wish I Was In Heaven Sitting Down, which got it absofuckinglutely spot on. It's one of the best blues albums ever and proof that blues need not be relegated to museums and documentaries. The tape loops, scratching and electronic tricks are still there, but the overall balance is more organic.
It's a bleak album, filled with songs of death and betrayal. Yet it is strangely uplifting, perhaps because it is (or should be) a resurrection. The blues had a baby all right, and this is what it sounds like.
Hopefully someone with better wordishness than me/I will have a go now in the comments. I just think it is one of those rare fully realized artistic visions that any collection is incomplete without. I'll link to Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues - an autobiographical take on Skip James' Killing Floor Blues - Got Messed Up and Miss Maybelle to give you an idea.
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9 comments:
Hey, I really like RL BUrnside!! I've only got a mess of tracks by him (I've got quite a few, but I'm not sure how they're organized, album-wise). I like the stuff he did with Lyrics Born (is that the right name?) as well as the more traditional stuff.
Good, you can write something intelligent then!
You already did!!
I think he was 73 when he did this.. a splendid mess of scratchin' and blues messed up good style...
I love this SO much.. basically because it shows you are never to old to experiment.. I do hope you are happy in heaven, with a lovely comfy rockin' chair Mr. B.
OF COURSE you'd already heard of this shane. One of us will one up you some day.
I learn loads from you all tin.. just can't keep up at the moment...
but I'm a sucker for mixing styles up (loads of people despise it.. not me) so this is ideal.
My dad has a vast Blues collection too.. so just hearing in my mind him tutting about the abuse from the scratching gives me a perverse sense of joy...
I think mixing it up adds to the world weariness of his voice (like a dad with wayward offspring) but keeps the tired joy of old with new, right at the heart of the record... just love it.
I do seam to remember me and steen trying to get a track on an RR list way back...
love his playing and voice.. great choice
(and there's plenty of tunes out there that haven't been messed with for the purists - hi Dad!)
well said about the tired joy of old with new shane.
you might like Chris Cornell's 2009 album Scream if you like mixing styles. Timbalake produced so there's a few (ok, more than) extraneous bits and it is an odd mix on paper. No one seems to rate the album, but I do.
Would recommend Keith LeBlanc's Chess Moves - Future Blues from last year. Tackhead remixes of the Chess back catalogue.
I've nominated his songs quite a few times. And I still feel bad about begging/bullying donds for Shit bug, for the insect playlist. But it's such a good song!
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