“fusing Delta and Hill Country with elements of jam-band rock… incredible” – Nashville Scene
2022 Grammy Award Winner and 3x nominee
2021 NEA National Heritage Fellow
Cedric Burnside has the blues in his blood. Loved worldwide for his guitar playing and vocals, he is also an acclaimed drummer and songwriter. He is the son of blues drummer Calvin Jackson and grandson of blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist R.L. Burnside. Over the last two decades, Cedric has become one of the foremost performers of Delta-style folk blues, specifically Hill Country blues.
When Burnside prepared to record 2024’s Hill Country Love, the follow-up to his 2021 Grammy-winning album I Be Trying, he set up shop in a former legal office located in a row of structures in Ripley, Mississippi, a town with 5,000 residents that’s known as the birthplace of the Hill Country Blues style.
“That building was actually going to be my juke joint. Everything was made out of wood, which made the sound resonate like a big wooden box,” said Burnside. “We recorded in the middle of a bunch of rubbish – wood everywhere and garbage cans,” Burnside says. “We just laid everything out the way and recorded the album right there.”
Many have drawn parallels between the polyrhythmic, droning sound of the Hill Country style, with its unpredictable chord progressions and bar counts, to West African music. But Burnside never really heard music from that part of the world until a few years ago, when a friend born in Gambia played him a record by Malian artist Ali Farka Toure.
Burnside is a recipient of a National Heritage Fellowship, the country’s highest honor in the folk and traditional arts and was recently recognized with the 2024 Mississippi Governor’s Art Award for Excellence in Music. He has performed and recorded with such diverse musicians as Jimmy Buffett, Bobby Rush, and Widespread Panic.
Recommended for Fans of Gary Clark Jr., The Black Keys, Taj Mahal and Buddy Guy
Photo: Jim Arbogast
Learn More: https://www.cedricburnside.net/
