<back - R.L. BURNSIDE - Nov 23, 1926 to September 2, 2005  - RL Burnside was born Nov 23, 1926 in Layfayette County, near Oxford, Mississippi. He began playing music at age 16, Inspired by John Lee Hooker's 'Boogie Chillen', R.L. began singing Blues and playing guitar, learning from  Delta Bluesmen, like Mississippi Fred McDowell and Muddy Waters. He migrated to Chicago in the mid 50s. Around 1959 he returned to Mississippi to again work the farms and raise a family. He also started to play music at night and on weekends. "Me and my brother-in-law would sometimes stay up till 2 in the morning playing. We'd play for 5 dollars and a bottle of whiskey. My wife would get mad at me 'cause I had to get up for work." he recalls.

RL Burnside's first recordings were on a 1967 Arhoolie compilation Mississippi Delta Blues, vol II. Throughout the '70s and '80s RL played with sons Joseph and Daniel Burnside and son-in-law Calvin Jackson. The group was known as the Sound Machine, but they were barely known outside North Mississippi. "I been touring since 1969. My first tour was in 1969 to Montreal, Canada. That was the first time I saw Lightnin' Hopkins and John Lee Hooker. They was playing on the same day. So I go on and do the show, ya know. But I'm playing some stuff behind Hooker like, Boogie Chillen and When my First Wife Left Me. And some stuff behind Lightnin' too. But when I first started off, I was nervous, ya know, cause I was drinking. After I played about halfway through the song people got to patting and hollering. Man, I went to feeling good then. I rocked the joint. After I came off the stage I walked in the dressing room and Lightning and John Lee was sitting in there and its the first time I ever met 'em. "Hey man, Burnside. I didn't know nobody could do that but us. I don't mind nobody playing my music long as they play it like that. I just don't want 'em to mess my damn music up." Burnside recalls. This began to change in the early '90s when the documentary film based on Robert Palmer's book 'Deep Blues' was released featuring him and other Mississippi musicians. What followed was a recording produced by Palmer, RL's Too Bad Jim for the Fat Possum label. It became one of the most important and influential Blues albums of the 90s. Too Bad Jim brought RL to the attention of  musician Jon Spencer and toured extensively with the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. This led to the collaboration between the two, with the result being the recording A Ass Pocket of Whiskey. In 1997 RL Burnside released Mr. Wizard on Fat Possum, featuring RL's grandson Cedric Burnside. In 1998 R.L. released Come On In, once again on Fat Possum, with producer Tom Rothrock (Beck, Elliot Smith). The album was a critical and commercial success, and the track It's Bad You Know, became hit. In 2001, RL Burnside released the biographical Wish I Was In Heaven Sitting Down. MP3- Nothin' Man | Heaven Sitting Down | My Buddy Done |