RL Burnside - A Bothered Mind

  by Daniel Cressey

published: 18 / 10 / 2004

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As a genre blues has more than its fair share of legends; dead, alive or somewhere in between. Of those in the second category however few can come close to R L Burnside, whose pared down, sometimes almost unintelligible blues howling bears comparison to Robert Johnson. But while some current blues artists are harking back to the original ‘guitar, drums, and nothing else’ blues-print (sic) Burnside has come out with ‘A Bothered Mind’ which contains classic blues but also some of his older material reinterpreted in ways certain to have purists scowling into their scotches. In fact, This almost comes close to being that most worthless of musical releases: the remix album. The purists are welcome to their sneers however. Admittedly some of these tracks fail – Kid Rock’s appearance on ‘My Name Is Robert Too’ at least give us someone to blame this thoughtless waste of chords on. And while the new version of ‘Goin’ Down South’ with underground rap star Lyrics Born taking most of the vocal duties isn’t anything like as bad it nevertheless proves to be a rather uncomfortable combination of two of the greatest exponents of their genre. But when the same rapper appears on ‘Someday Baby’ it is a revelation. Instead of forcing the blues to fit a hip-hop mould Burnside and Born combine in a superb way that is both unquestionably modern and still possessed of a pure blues centre. ‘Bird Without a Feather’ was recorded in 1968 and yet it fits perfectly on the same album as the Scott Sumner and Tino Gross produced ‘Stole My Check’ Even when the songs here fail to be brilliant they are still intriguing and rewarding. And when they are brilliant, well, they show why Burnside is a blues legend.

Track Listing:-

1 Detroit Boogie, Pt. 1
2 See What My Buddy Done
3 Shake 'Em on Down
4 Goin' Down South
5 My Name Is Robert Too
6 Someday Baby
7 Go to Jail
8 Bird Without a Feather
9 Glory Be
10 Goin' Away Baby
11 Rollin' and Tumblin'
12 Stole My Check
13 Detroit Boogie, Pt. 2

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