Thursday, August 12, 2004
Artist: R. L. Burnside
Title: A Bothered Mind
This is an exceptionally interesting album. Harkening from the great South, Burnside once again blends his Mississippi delta blues with modern Electronica to create a special music that will make most Blues purists will cringe before capturing their imaginations. This experimental blend is not new: Moby has tried it in the past. Burnside’s adventurous blood is also apparent on his previous album ‘Ass Pocket of Whisky’ recorded with Indie Rocker’s Jon Spencer’s Blues Explosion.
This is the best example to date of this effort to blend the old with the new. At this point I need to flop in the line, ‘Something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue.’ In this case this bromide applies totally!
Using Burnside’s John Lee Hooker style loose barchord style guitar playing over a traditional blues bass & drum line, this album jumps & jives with loops, repetitive phrases, and well placed electronic whirls and twirls to create a heady blues album that is immediately familiar and immediately strange. This is probably the hippest thing I’ve heard all year. However, if there were ever a situation where something is too cool for the room... this could be it!
Blossoming Detroit superstar Kid Rock ‘throws down’ on the track, My Name is Robert Too’ which relies heavily on vocal loops ala’ early 80’s King Crimson. (Seems you can't listen to an album these days without Kid ‘Robert’ Rock guesting on it!) The artist Born is also featured on two tracks on the album; Goin’ Down South, and Someday Baby.
The packaging on the album is a multi-fold album jacket with brightened colors of the artis on a delta gravel road: a depiction of the music inside… kinda old, kinda new, definitely borrowing a modern sound to lay over some very good blues. This album is exceptionally interesting but will probably not appeal to everyone. Check out Homer's in-store listening stations in the month of August ’04 as this disc is featured and worth checking out if only to let you know what CAN be done when a creative mind gets to work on it.
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