Cedric Burnside was raised in the juke joints. As blues royalty, he began playing with his grandfather R.L. Burnside when just a little boy and the sweaty Saturday night dance parties were part school, part church to the young player and a place where people could do their sinning the night before repenting.
Through the process of seeking out a physical space to recreate the environment of his youth, one that has been mainly lost to modern life, Burnside was led instead to making his latest album Hill Country Love.
Burnside will perform in Houston on Thursday, May 9 at The Continental Club for what is sure to be a special evening of the blues featuring Houston’s own The Mighty Orq opening the show.
“It was something beautiful,” says Burnside of being one of 35 grandchildren to his iconic grandfather and getting to share the stage with him at such a young age.
“I don’t think it would be appropriate these days for a ten-year-old to be up in the juke joints playing music, but I am happy and I’m grateful just to be from the Burnside family and just so appreciative and love my big daddy for opening the door for the Burnside family.”
Burnside knows that his path to music and success wouldn’t have been so easy without his family influence, though he isn’t just riding along on the coattails of his famous grandfather.
Burnside is a real player with real stories to tell and has always sounded wise beyond his years, no doubt a consequence of sharing the road with so many older bluesmen and soaking in their cautionary tales as they traveled the country.
“I had all this wisdom around me,” explains Burnside who says in his teens his closest peer in age was usually pushing 60. “So, I might sound a little old at some times but that’s the wisdom I was around.”
Before making Hill Country Love, Burnside was exploring properties to start his own juke joint when a friend turned him onto an old building as a possibility. “I was going to try to find me a juke joint just because I miss it,” says Burnside.
“It was a big part of my life just growing up as a kid in the community that I grew up in. They loved to come every weekend and hear that music, so I was just trying to bring it back and give the people some more good times just like we did in the good old days.”
The building needed a little work and one day while there, Burnside just happened to have his trusty guitar. As he sat down to play for a spell, his friend and sometimes roadie Chuck who was with him and gets a shout on the title track of the new album, called his attention saying “Man, did you hear that?”
Burnside agreed there was something special between those walls and was talking to his “brother from another mother” Luther Dickinson about it when Dickinson encouraged him to lay down an album in that building and his plan changed from juke joint to recording.
His grit, growl and gratefulness shine through on every track with Burnside showing a little more of himself than before adding a kind of lip curling aggression to his playing and singing and the trust between Burnside and Dickinson, two kids who grew up in breathing the blues, is evident in the product of their process.
“God be the glory and that’s what I like to hear. That’s what I was going for,” agrees Burnside when discussing the final takeaway from his beautiful album.
“I always say that this album has a little bit of all walks of life in it but I love to bring out the positive aspect of every situation if I can and so I just thank the lord for giving me a good head on my shoulders and giving me the talent to go out and spread my music to the people in hopes that they can relate to it as well.”
Burnside has always paid homage to his Hill Country blues roots, a style originating from north Mississippi and known for its mesmerizing and repetitive groove cycles. On Hill Country Love Burnside didn’t stop at a few tracks but let the entire album shine a light on his past while showing fans the undeniable strength of his future.
“That’s just something I always did was pay homage to my big daddy R.L. and all the great legends of Hill Country that showed me the ropes and everybody that I played with and was really close to me, Ms. Jessie Mae Hemphill she was a true hill country legend and also Mr. Othar Turner.”
Burnside glows recalling the days of attending Turner’s legendary picnics where blues players and lovers came from all over the world to attend and get down.
“Oh wow, it was so much fun and it was so real. When I tell you it was real, it was really, really real and people loved that experience that was the very first chance I got to play a snare was at his picnic and so it was a big part of my life and every album I put out I am gonna try to pay tribute to all the great legends of hill country that I can before I leave this world.”
Burnside may come off as a man who came out the womb strumming and picking the guitar, but he actually began by playing drums for his grandfather and didn’t make the switch until the early 2000s.
He recalls sitting playing a song on guitar for his grandfather at he sat at his bedside in one of his final days and how his grandfather gave him a big thumbs up, something R.L. must be doing from up above for Hill Country Love.
“I like to think so too,” he says of the other world approval. “As long as I’m living I’m going to keep writing music I’m going to keep putting it out. I’m not trying to be the guy that filled my Big Daddy’s shoes or any of the great legends of the Hill Country but I am here to keep this music going and to pave my own way which I think I’m doing a pretty good job of. I just have to thank our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and R.L. Burnside.”
Cedric Burnside will perform with The Mighty Orq on Thursday, May 9 at The Continental Cub, 3700 Main, 8 p.m, $20-30.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
