Garry & Cedric Burnside

Changing of the Guard - Courtesy of the Memphis Flyer

As old heroes pass, a new generation of Mississippi musicians keeps the Hill Country sound alive.

BY ANDRIA LISLE

Remove a musical patriarch from his homegrown scene and what happens?  In the case of the north Mississippi hill country, the death of beloved bluesman R.L. Burnside has spurred his offspring into action.

"After a number of false starts, the North Mississippi blues scene is finally starting to coalesce a bit," says music writer Scott Barretta, who moved to Oxford in 1999.

"In one sense, it's disappointing the R.L. is no longer part of the action, but it's also exciting to see all the new bands that have gotten their act together," Barretta says.

Burnside Exploration, formed by R.L.'s son Garry Burnside and his grandson Cedric Burnside, has two new albums on the way.  Duwayne Burnside, another son, is touring with his group the Mississippi Mafia on the strength of his debut studio release, Under Pressure.

"We've been into blues all our life," Garry Burnside says.  "Whatever we do is gonna be considered 'hill country' because this is where we're from.  But we're the new generation.  We like rap and all kinds of music."

Last March, Burnside Exploration entered into Jimbo Mathus' Delta Recording Studio in Clarksdale, Mississippi to record an album for B.C. Records, the label behind Under Pressure.  That record, says Cedric, should be released next month.

"Most of those songs are originals," Cedric says.  "I write about my life, my kids, and everyday things.  I try to stick to the truth."

Just 27 years old, he recalls growing up without a radio or a TV.  "My granddad used to play out on the porch, and we'd have house parties every weekend.  Johnny Woods would come over and blow harmonica, and he'd drink two or three gallons of corn liquor.  We just stomped up dirt."

A few years later, Cedric explains, the family purchased a radio and the younger generation of Burnsides was exposed to hip-hop artists like LL Cool J and Run-D.M.C. -- artists who influenced his younger  brother Cody, an aspiring rapper.

Despite the death of his grandfather, who passed away in September, Cedric maintains that 2005 has been a good year.  He was cast in Craig Brewer's upcoming flick Black Snake Moan, and in October, Burnside Exploration opened for perennial jam-band faves Widespread Panic at Mud Island.  More recently, they've performed at festivals in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, and for sold-out crowds at the Buccaneer in Midtown Memphis.

"We have to live," Cedric says, "and we have to take care of our family.  The best way I know to make money is by making music."

Duwayne Burnside, meanwhile, has eschewed his hill-country roots for a more modern soul-blues sound.  Nevertheless, Duwayne's Albert King derived guitar technique, which comes through loud and clear on songs like R.L.'s "Bad Luck City," is well worth checking out.

From Blues Review Magazine - June/July 2006
Reviewed by Tom Hyslop

Key Word, Exploration:  R.L.'s progeny pushed North Mississippi sounds into new territory

BURNSIDE EXPLORATION "The Record"

In addition to his well-known solo recordings, R.L. Burnside was the patriarch of a musical family.  His name is now being carried on by Burnside Exploration, a duo made up of R.L.'s youngest son, Garry, on guitar, and one of his grandsons, Cedric, on drums.  The two have been playing together for more than 20 years, beginning when they were respectively six and four years old.  Producer Scott Hatch's liner notes for The record make a not-inappropriate comparison to the White Stripes, observing that "he who does it first, does it best."

Listeners who felt conflicted (or outright offended) by R.L.'s career-building experimentation with punk collaborators and a rock sound will probably steer clear of The Record.  That's a shame, because Burnside Exploration, for all its amped-up guitar, never strays far from the single-mindedly devastating Hill Country blues rhythms of R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough, with who the pair worked for years.  Kimbrough's signature "All Night Long" and Burnside's well-known "Long Haired Doney" are given spiritedly careening readings, and Willie Cobb's "You Don't Love Me" is similarly North Mississippi-ized.  The Exploration's originals, which make up much of the balance of The Record, share an inseparable kinship with these touchstone songs.  Uptempo stomps "Rambler" and "All by Myself," in particular, have a satisfying driving pulse.

Broadening their palette with a rock-edged approach, the fuzz-toned instrumentals "Boogie" and "Intro 8" wouldn't sound out of place in a playlist of live Hendrix material, and the funky, wah-wah-infused leadoff, "Bitch You Lie," is like barbed wire.  The delivery of slower numbers "One Cold & Lonely Night" and the crashing "Rock Me Baby" relative "Poor Man's Blues" is heavy but completely in character, as are the soulful original R&B ballad "I Want To Live" and a solid, faithful cover of Bob Dylan's "Knockin' On Heaven's Door."

Burnside Exploration's remarkably full sound isn't due entirely to Jimbo Mathus' supplementary guitar.  Cedric's stage-shaking drumming relies more on his ride and crash cymbals than is the case with most blues players, and Garry's guitar work judiciously blends rock-solid rhythms, scratchy funk, and buzzing leads.  They blend voices like only family members who grew up singing together can do.  Best suited to those who appreciate the raw sounds of R.L. Burnside or Kimbrough.  The Record is an unexpected extension of those artists' heavier work.

From the Houston Press - Houston's only major news and entertainment weekly

Burnside Exploration
The Record
By John Nova Lomax

Ever since I was a baby critic, I've been hearing about how the blues was dying. Allegedly, it died when Wolf passed away, and then again when Muddy went to his maker, and then for a third time, when John Lee Hooker marched on. For every blues-playing so-and-so that left the stage, a litany of obits rang out about how it was a shame that there were no young black people who would come along and take the place of this master, et cetera, blah blah blah.

Invariably one or more of them does. This time it's the son and grandson of one such master, R.L. Burnside, who've given the lie to the "blues is dead" myth.

That is, if you can call all of what these guys play the blues. For one thing, a lot of this music comes down directly in a line from that of Mississippi Fred McDowell, whose hypnotic and driving guitar and repetitive vocal lines always seemed closer to African music than that of other bluesmen, even those, like Robert Johnson and Son House, who came from just a county or two away. I've always felt that what all the McDowell-influenced cats played could more accurately be described as primordial boogie, with one killer power riff played over and over until a counterpoint comes careening in at an off-kilter angle, just when you least expect it. The guitars may sound out of tune, or they might just be playing rotgut-moonshine scales. Who cares? But if the band has a drummer, this music demands that he bash the fuck out of his traps and cymbals.

Burnside Exploration does have a drummer, R.L.'s grandson Cedric, and he does indeed knock the snot out of his kit. Meanwhile, R.L.'s son Garry dishes out the distorted riffage and weird wa-wa effects on guitar, and on the grunged-out remakes of Mississippi Hill Country classics like "Long Haired Doney," "All Night Long" and "You Don't Love Me," as well as the hip-hop-influenced original "Bitch You Lie," the always trippy style sounds more psychedelic than ever. (As for the cover of "Knocking on Heaven's Door": What's a nice song like that doing in a rough joint like this?)

Sure, neither of the younger Burnsides can sing as well as their ancestor, but in this style of Mississippi music, the vocals have always been on the back burner anyway, and their voices are mixed low. Singing isn't what this album is about. The primordial boogie is not exactly music to dance to, but it's close: This is music to stomp, howl and guzzle 100-proof straight out of the bottle to. Make sure you don't play this album on a school night.

From Blueswax - March 15, 2006 - a weekly online news page from e-publisher Visionation

Burnside Exploration Explodes

The Burnsides have been playing music for quite sometime, now with Big Daddy R.L. and Junior Kimbrough passing on it's time for the kids to play. Duwayne has had success with his stint in the North Mississippi All-Stars and is out on his own solo career with a second album released in 2005. Now Cedric and Garry are at it creating the Burnside Exploration. Cedric sat in the drummer seat for R.L. trailblazing a unique sound on the skins. Garry dropped the bass lines behind Junior and has also added to recordings by Ms. Jessie Mae Hemphill, the North Mississippi All-Stars, Olga, and Duwayne. On The Record, Cedric is still in the rhythm seat and Garry leads the way on the guitar. They also include former Squirrel Nut Zipper and Knockdown Society frontman Jimbo Mathus on additional guitars.

These songs represent the future as sifted through the past. R.L. brought out a sound that was new and fresh and continued creating new sounds in the last decade of his life. His kids and grandkids are doing the same thing. The sounds on The Record are fuzzy, harsh, groovin', bouncin', and thumpin'. The power and energy culminated is an extension of life playing at fish fries and on the road; combine the two experiences, add a little youth, a little vigor, and stir at a steady, even pace until smooth.

There is a pocket in the northern Mississippi Hill Country that has not been invaded by the popular sounds of modern day life. This area raises these musicians into their own being, it allows them the creativity in the middle of a dark night to pull on the feel of the corn whiskey and the gyrating female on the floor in front of them to dig deep into the dirt and tug on the roots of sound. If these sounds don't get that alley cat a roamin' then go on back to class and ask questions.

The disc gets juked up right in the beginning with "Bitch You Lie" and wraps up with an ease down on Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door." There are only two other covers on the album, if you can call them that. This album is dedicated to R.L. and Junior, so it is only fitting to record one each of their songs. The rest is original material that is so steeped in the tradition of the regional musical form that most of these songs sound like long-lost relatives' stories of the past.

Overall the disc doesn't have standout songs, but has a solid flow throughout. The sound is recorded very well and the production team of Scott Hatch and John X, who also produced Duwayne's latest, know what they want on each performance. Once you hit play on this disc you are committed to playing it all the way through. There is a grabbing sound pulling you into their world, a world where music is a way of life.

"You Don't Love Me" has a hot sound off the bat, but Cedric's drumming gives it that lazy southern beat; it's a laid-back heat. The tone on the guitar is so full it almost doesn't leave room for any other instruments. "One Cold & Lonely Night" has that drone that the region has become known for. There are two instrumentals, "Boogie" and "Intro 8," that push hard through the disc. These guys can outright play. The inclusion of "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" was a surprise to me, but the vibe created on the song is perfect. Jason Gurley contributes the vocals and bass on the song and it is an excellent version, and a great way to close out the disc. It is a teaser and wants you to hit play and do it all over again, or go out and buy the next disc when it hits the shelves.

Hop on this bandwagon now! This is another generation of Burnsides that are ready to play, so let them play!