CEDRIC BURNSIDE Benton County Relic

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.