R.L. Burnside – Too Bad Jim – Fat Possum Records FP1005 

The history of the blues is necessarily documented regarding the vital relationship of Mississippi artists, both early country and post-World War II musicians, who affirmed the region as one of the most fundamental in the development and growth of the blues.  Though, as the music was further advanced in the northern urban centers during the post-war period, Mississippi was almost placed out of mind as an ongoing source of blues talent.  It seemed as though what was going on up north on the “big” stages was more important than what was happening down south.  This is despite the fact that experienced deep-rooted senior Mississippi blues artists, steeped as they were in the tradition of the territory’s impacts upon the music, were providing powerful, dynamic blues.  In 1994, the release year of Too Bad Jim, more seasoned bluesmen such as Junior Kimbrough, Jay Owens, and Jessie Mae Hemphill continued to flourish there, along with R.L. Burnside, at the time one of the enduring members of this sacred club.  R.L.’s music maintained the unremitting droning characteristic and beat that is at the nucleus of Mississippi northern hill country blues, a form of the music not for the weak of heart.  It is a configuration of the blues intended to afford a background in the noisy, hot, sweaty surroundings of the juke joints and house gatherings of the area, fashioned to be piercing, transcendent, and anxious in its structure.  These clubs were not palaces of luxury and features, and the songs bestowed on this CD tell the tales of the demanding life of the southern Black.  On this stinging compilation, R.L.’s guitar sound is percussive and cutting, and his vocals leach with world-weariness, anguish, and insistence.

Below is the CD’s track listing.  These are ten archetypical cuts of Mississippi juke joint blues, propelling and heaving their ways into one’s consciousness.  They toughly stand the test of time and blues significance.

Song Titles

• Shake ‘Em On Down
• When My First Wife Left Me
• Short-Haired Woman
• Old Black Mattie
• Fireman Ring The Bell
• Peaches
• Miss Glory B
• .44 Pistol
• Death Bell Blues
• Goin’ Down South

This is a highly-essential blues document, and one you need in your blues collection!