R.L. Burnside, the Mississippi blues innovator who found new generations of fans in the 1990s by combining his gritty countrified sound with elements of indie rock, hip-hop and even electronica, died Thursday in a Memphis hospital. He was 78.
According to a statement issued by his Oxford, Mississippi-based label, Fat Possum Records, Burnside passed away Thursday morning at St. Francis Hospital. The singer-guitarist had been ailing since suffering a heart attack last year and undergoing heart bypass surgery.
Burnside was considered one of the last great purveyors of North Mississippi hill country blues. He garnered cult-hero status in 1996, when he and his band teamed up with jam rockers the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion for A Ass Pocket of Whiskey, which successfully incorporated punk with the blues.
Two years later, he scored even more crossover success when his track "It's Bad You Know," off 1998's remix disc Come On In, was featured in the first season finale of HBO's The Sopranos and the series' subsequent soundtrack album.
Burnside launched his recording career in 1968, toiling for years in obscurity, his fame mostly confined to his home state of Mississippi. But all that changed thanks to several Fat Possum releases in the early '90s, which connected with younger musicians, particularly Blues Explosion and the Beastie Boys, who took to his droning raw riffs and adventurous boogie. Burnside would later accompany the Beasties on tour in 1998.
Among the late-blossoming bluesman's best known albums are 1992's live Bad Luck City, 1994's Too Bad Jim, which earned critical plaudits for down-home songs like "Shake 'Em Down," and Come On In, which spawned the driving hit, "Let My Baby Ride." While the latter disc featured electronic loops, bleeps, hypnotic hip-hop beats and samples that might have made purists cringe, it was put into heavy rotation by alternative and rock radio stations and embraced by fans who saw the artist's remixing efforts expanding the musical possibilities of the genre.
Burnside's final album, 2004's A Bothered Mind, continued his foray into electronica, showcasing his John Lee Hooker-style guitar work alongside such guests as Kid Rock.
Born in Harmontown, Mississippi, on Nov. 21, 1926, Burnside grew up as a sharecropper and fisherman before learning the guitar from local musicians like Fred McDowell and Rainie Burnett. He eventually migrated to Chicago in the 1940s where he came under the influence of blues legends like Lightning Hopkins and Muddy Waters.
Burnside's stay there was short-lived; he returned to his home state after his father, uncle and brother were murdered there in the span of one month.
He released his first batch of recordings on a 1967 Arhoolie collection. While he toured locally for years, it wasn't until the late '80s that he was invited to perform at European blues festivals. But it was Robert Mugge's 1991 documentary, Deep Blues, that finally brought Burnside to wider attention.
During the '90s, with the success of the Fat Possum albums, the axeman toured frequently with his band, which included his grandson, drummer Cedric Burnside, and guitarist Kenny Brown.
Burnside is survived by his wife, Alice Mae, 12 children and numerous grandchildren. Details on a funeral service are pending. |
