Tag Archives: mississippi hill country blues

CEDRIC BURNSIDE Benton County Relic

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CEDRIC BURNSIDE
BENTON COUNTY RELIC Single Lock Records
For fans of Junior Kimbrough, R.L. Burnside, John Lee Hooker, and The White Stripes
The Blues are on life-support. For decades now radio has almost totally ignored the genre, purists only want to listen onlyto “classic” recordings, and younger artists are more interested in showing you how many notes they can play thansettling in on a nice groove.  And if all that wasn’t enough to bring down one of America’s greatest contributions to the world of music, most of the genre’s legends are now passing on to the “great gig in the sky”.  So what does this mean for the future of the Blues?  Will webe damned to  see only “Blues Hammer” type bands when wanting to see live Blues (see the movie Ghost World for that reference). Fortunately, the is a little bit of light on the dark horizon, and that light is Cerdic Burnside.
Raised in the Mississippi Hill Country by his grandfather, and Blues legend, R.L. Burnside, Cedric’s whole life has revolved around the Blues. His new album entitled Benton Country Relic is reminiscent of recordings by Mississippi Blues legends like John Lee Hooker, Junior Kimbrough and R.L. Burnside and might be the best album he’s ever released. The songs have a beautiful looseness and focus more on establishing a strong groove then flashy guitar solos.  If the Blues is going to survive in the 21st century a big reason will be because of Cedric Burnside.
Benton Country Relic opens with the powerful stomping “We Made It”.  Featuring a guitar line and tone that calls to mind the sound of Ali Fara Toure as well as traditional country blues, the song is an excellent example of what’s to come on the rest of the album, REAL DEAL BLUES.  Additionally, Benton Country Relic also contains some great examples of blues drumming. Cedric is an accomplished Blues drummer and has manned the kit for Blues legends Junior Kinbrough, Jessie Mae Hemphill, and his grandfather R.L. Burnside. As with those groups, his steady and syncopated rhythms help drive the music and keep things interesting. On rockers “Typical Day” and “I’m Hurtin” Cedric’s playing swings hard, giving the listener an example of what it might sound like in a Juke Joint in rural Mississippi on Saturday night. For the gloomy “Call on Me” he keeps things loose to the point where it sounds like the band is almost ready to collapse.  This adds to song’s dark ambiance and helps make this one of the album’s coolest tracks.    Another stand out track on the record is the acoustic balled  “There is So Much”. Here the listener gets a chance to catch their breath,while Cedric shows you that he can still move you without the help of electric guitar and drums.
The album’s strongest track “Ain’t Gonna Take No Mess” closes out the record.  One might say this tune sounds like a song by the groups The White Stripes, Black Keys, or even Led Zeppelin, when in fact it’s the other way around.  According to Cedric himself, the Blues is all he’s ever known, it’s all his family has ever known. That’s because it’s an art form that’s literally run in the veins of his family and those in the surrounding area for generations. Way before The White Stripes or Led Zeppelin bought their first instruments, musicians from the Mississippi Hill Country were making music like the music on Benton County Relic. Now it’s Cedric’s turn to keep the sound of the Hill Country Blues alive, and if he keeps releasing albums like this, the blues just might survive.

LEO “BUD” WELCH: Sabougla Voices

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Leo “Bud” Welch: SABOUGLA VOICE Big Legal Mess/Fat Possum

For Fans of: Junior Kimbrough, R.L. Burnside, The White Stripes, Rev Louis Overstreet

Guitarist Leo “Bud” Welch was born in Sabougla, Mississippi in 1932.  A natural musician, Leo taught himself to play the guitar by learning songs off the radio.  As soon as he built up a small repertoire he began performing at parties and local juke-joints.  Unfortunately work as a musician was inconsistent and even though he was incredibility talented he was unable to make a living playing music.  In order to make ends-meet Leo ended up taking a job as a logger and had to resort to playing music only when he had free time.  Then in 1975 Leo switched from playing Blues to playing Gospel.  He started performing in churches all over Mississippi and even began hosting a local Gospel Television show. Even though he now considered himself a Gospel musician he still kept in touch with the local Blues scene.  As time went on he heard that Blues musicians like Junior Kimbrough were having late-in-life success working with Fat Possum Records.  Inspired by this he called up the label and requested an audition. Label owner Bruce Watson agreed to hear Leo play and ended up signing him on the spot. Now thanks to the good people at Fat Possum and Big Legal Mess Records the world finally gets to hear one of the treasures of Mississippi, guitarist Leo Welch.

The album is called  Sabougla Voices and the music on it is honest no-frills Mississippi Gospel.  Throughout the albums ten tracks Leo’s plays the guitar with the energy of someone half his age.  Songs like “Praise His Name” and “You Can’t Hurry God” are upbeat and show us the lines between Blues and Gospel are blurry at best. In fact, if you were to change a few lyrics, these songs could easily be for Saturday night instead of Sunday morning.  Another standout track on the record is the acoustic “Me and My Lord”.  Sounding a little like Pops Staples, Leo does call and response with his backup singers while playing acoustic guitar. This song is given an extra push by Leo’s backing band which shows it’s professionalism by settling into a nice groove and not over playing.

Even though all of the music on Sabougla Voices is solid, the album’s strongest track is easily the slow and eerie blues tune “A Long Journey”. Beautifully recorded, this song is about accepting the fact that death is part of life.  That being said, hopefully Leo will be still be around for a long time as he deserves to enjoy every minute of his new found success!  He’s got gigs booked across the U.S. this summer and is even scheduled to perform in Europe!  Not bad for someone that at one point had to turn down an audition with B.B. King because he couldn’t afford to travel to Memphis. This album is excellent and belongs in your collection.

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