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Born in Holly Springs, Mississippi, guitarist Kent Burnside is the eldest grandson of legendary bluesman R.L. Burnside. Schooled in the blues by his grandfather, Kent\u2019s formal start in the music business came with his tenure touring with Buddy Guy in the early years of the new century. Burnside has been recording and releasing albums for more than a decade; his latest, Hill Country Blood<\/i> was cut in Memphis with Grammy-winning producer Boo Mitchell.<\/p>\n
Hill Country Blood<\/i> opens with \u201cMy Daddy Told Me.\u201d As its title makes plain, the song is steeped in the blues\u2019 autobiographical tradition. Accompanied only by his electric guitar, Burnside weaves a compact history of his time on Earth, proudly exclaiming, \u201cLook at me now!\u201d The rhythmic contrast between Burnside\u2019s vocal line and his guitar work is inspired and fascinating.<\/p>\n
The rest of the band comes in on the album\u2019s title track. Spare, assured and rock-solid accompaniment from bassist Garry Burnside and drummer Jake Best provide everything needs to carve out a bluesy (but very rock-oriented) arrangement. The simmering, seething track showcases both Burnside\u2019s taut and impassioned yet restrained lead vocal, and his sinewy lead guitar work.<\/p>\n
Loping, distorted guitar is at the core of Burnside\u2019s reading of the blues standard \u201cCrawling King Snake.\u201d Memphissippi Sounds\u2019 Yella P contributes some searing harp work, engaging in musical dialogue with Burnside\u2019s vocals. \u201cI Heard\u201d features a lean and mean arrangement that once again shines the spotlight on Burnside\u2019s fiery guitar work.<\/p>\n
The smoky \u201cI Go Crazy\u201d takes its time to unfold, and Burnside\u2019s vocal strikes an appropriately menacing tone. For \u201cOne More Chance,\u201d Burnside sings in unison with his lead guitar line while Yella P\u2019s harp wails in the distance; the song\u2019s atmosphere is impressive and memorable. The chugging \u201cRob and Steal\u201d has a haunting, dangerous vibe; Best\u2019s insistent snare skillfully heightens the tension.<\/p>\n
The slow, contemplative blues of \u201cI Can Feel It\u201d makes effective use of the spaces between the notes, and Garry Burnside\u2019s subtle bass work gives the track its foundation. The guitarist\u2019s understated wah-wah pedal work on \u201cYou Better Run\u201d is a model of careful and effective restraint. For the record\u2019s closer \u201cI Miss You,\u201d Burnside sets down his electric axe in favor of an acoustic. Joined by Garry on second acoustic plus Yella P, it\u2019s a strong and soulful way in which to end Hill Country Blood<\/i>, likely one of the year\u2019s best new blues albums.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Born in Holly Springs, Mississippi, guitarist Kent Burnside is the eldest grandson of legendary bluesman R.L. Burnside. Schooled in the blues by his grandfather, Kent\u2019s formal start in the music […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30017,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,49,65],"tags":[5776],"class_list":["post-30016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blues","category-new-release","category-review","tag-kent-burnside","cat-9-id","cat-49-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30016"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30021,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30016\/revisions\/30021"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}