Artist: Cedric Burnside
Album: Benton County Relic
Label: Single Lock
Release Date: 9.14.2018
Grammy-nominated and multi-BMA Award winner Cedric Burnside continues to carry the torch for authentic Mississippi Hill Country Blues on his latest release, Benton County Relic. He was literally born into it, growing up as the grandson of the most famous progenitor of the that blues variant, “Big Daddy” R.L. Burnside. Surrounded and impacted by Junior Kimbrough, Jessie Mae Hemphill, Otha Turner and absorbing the Delta influences of T-Model Ford shaped Cedric’s vision. He’s an international star now but still resides on several acres not far from Holly Springs, MS where he was raised by “Big Daddy.”
Cedric Burnside has never yearned to escape his seemingly predestined role. In “Ain’t Gonna Take No Mess” he sings, “My school was a juke joint/from a kid till I was grown/And blues is really/All I ever known.” Acknowledged as the best blues drummers as evidence by four consecutive BMAs in that category, Burnside eschews drums on this effort, which is a showcase for his acoustic and electric guitar. He and drummer/slide guitarist Brian J. laid down 26 tracks in just two days in the latter’s Brooklyn studio, selecting a dozen for the album.
This is the rural, scruffy blues played with so much passion and fire that makes you instantly reach for that bottle of whisky or whatever else to transport you to another place. Not yet 40, Burnside has the kind of charisma live to reach fans of the popular acts like the White Stripes and the Black Keys who made much of the Hill country blues part of their sound. Burnside received a Grammy nomination for 2015’s Descendants of Hill Country and if purity counts, could get a nod again for this one. When we say “real deal” it doesn’t get much more vivid that “I come from nothin’/I done been lower than low/I keep my head straight/No matter how low I go” in “We Made It.” He sings about the loss of family in “Hard to Stay Cool,” unrequited passion in “There Is So Much,” and unbridled lust in “Give It to You.”
Burnside lost both his parents, an uncle and younger brother Cody over the last few years. He professes his love for the music as a healing force this way, “Back in the day, it wasn’t heard as music, but more like ‘somebody help me’, I want to get out of this situation. These days, anybody can have the blues. Some people deal with loss by going out and getting drunk or even killing themselves. The blues is about surviving through these hard times, telling the world what you’ve been through, and how you came out of it.”
“Call on Me” was written for his three daughters, ages 13-17 about being there for them emotionally even though he tours so much. The traditional “Death Bell Blues” is a tribute to R.L Burnside who used to perform this oft-covered song. On “Ain’t Gonna Take No Mess” Cedric says he’s his own man, regardless of what others may want him to do. “I’ve playing almost 30 years now,” he says, “It’s who I am, what I am, I am Hill Country blues. This is my whole life, and I’m not going to listen to anyone who tells me what I can and can’t do. I just thank God that Single Lock Record let me be with my music.”
The album is a pouring out of personal experience and Burnside finds it both natural and cathartic. He could, like so many others, comment on the current state of the world but sees it this way instead. “But I try to five it all to God and let Him handle it. Politics divides people. The blues brings them together. A bluesman has to find a way to make it through.” Cedric Burnside: philosopher, torch carrier, truth bearer. We need more like him.
—Jim Hynes
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