R.L. Burnside
May 4th, 2008
Forget those dolled-up, pentagram-sportin', tattooed rock 'n' rollers that comprise his audience of late — the bona fide bad-ass is up onstage. You wanna talk hard livin'– nothing beats the real life rigmarole of old bluesmen like R.L. Burnside. Coming out of the deep South in the 1930s, Burnside was one of the artists featured in Richard Grant's article on the wild lives of elder bluesmen on Fat Possum Records in the March 27, 1999, edition of British daily The Daily Telegraph. It said that Burnside went to prison in the 1940s for murder. He allegedly shot a man in the back of the head, but only served three months thanks to a plantation owner who needed Burnside to work the next planting season. A grimly practical Burnside told his label, "I didn't mean to kill nobody. I just meant to shoot the sonofabitch in the head. Him dying was between him and the Lord." As rugged and rowdy as his reputation, Burnside's overdriven Delta Blues slide guitar playing is fierce and blistering. His singing is heartfelt, though often mumbled and slurred. Live shows chug along like a steam engine overheating. His massive cult following comes in all shapes and sizes. - Dennise Lite
Robert Cray
Finding a modern audience has earned Cray some criticism he wouldn't get if he was a struggling club performer. He has a clean, singing guitar, strong songwriting abilities, and a soul voice more Sam Cooke than Muddy Waters. His unique mix of blues, rock, and soul has taken another turn of late: Cray's latest album celebrates that glorious Stax Records sound of the '60s. While their styles are different, Cray could arguably be compared to Ray Charles, another performer who ably crossed blues, soul and pop barriers. - Eric Shea
Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters was one of the few key players of the postwar Chicago Blues scene who actually influenced the music that influenced him. His swollen, grandiloquent vocals were an instrument unto themselves and his beefy electric slide playing breathed new life into music heavily influenced by the Delta Blues. Waters, who grew up on the Mississippi Delta in Clarksdale listening to the music of Son House, moved to Chicago in 1943. In 1948, he recorded "I Can't Be Satisfied" and "I Feel like Going Home." The former became his first national R&B chart topper, and influenced the Rolling Stones' "I Can't Get No Satisfaction," and his 1950 song "Rollin' Stone" inspired the band's name. Waters assembled one of the meanest bands in blues history, the Headhunters, comprised of Little Walter, Baby Face Leroy Foste, and Jimmy Rogers. In 1951, Waters cranked out four hits, "Louisiana Blues," "Long Distance Call," "Honey Bee," and "Still a Fool" which rapidly climbed the charts and prompted Leonard Chess (founder of Chess Records) to play on the 1952 hit, "She Moves Me." Waters' renditions of "You Shook Me" and "I Just Wanna Make Love To You" turned on a sea of blues-obsessed British musicians who made him their new God. The Stones couldn't believe their eyes when they went to visit the legendary Sun Studio in Memphis only to find their God painting the ceiling. They put together an intimate gig and jammed with Waters on "I Just Wanna Make Love to You." By his death in 1983, Waters was already a legend in music. He had influenced the sound of Chicago Blues, as well as anyone who ever picked up on the music to which he lent his King Midas touch. - Eric Shea