Blues musicians observe two important anniversaries today, Nov 23, 2013

.
This is one of TWO EDITIONS today of the Guide. The OTHER edition has more news, along with the full lowdown on all the hoedowns across the Southern California musical landscape.

<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>

♪   Today in history…

There are two important BLUES MUSIC anniversaries today.

First up is ROBERT JOHNSON: SOME SURPRISING TRUTHS

Followed by a second feature about ROBERT LEE “R.L.” BURNSIDE.

We include links and to catch performance videos of each of these legends.

<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>
.
.
ROBERT JOHNSON: SOME SURPRISING TRUTHS

by Frank Beacham

Bluesman Robert Johnson was recorded for the very first time in a San Antonio recording studio on November 23, 1936 — 77 years ago today.

The legend of Robert Johnson, arguably the most influential blues performer of all time, began growing in earnest only in the early 1960s, more than 20 years after his death.

It was the 1959 publication of Samuel Charters' "The Country Blues" that introduced his name to many, but as Charters himself observed of Johnson at the time, "Almost nothing is known about his life....He is only a name on a few recordings."

What is well known about those recordings is that they helped inspire a blues-rock revolution in the decade that followed—a revolution led by young British musicians like Eric Clapton and Keith Richard. What is less well known, perhaps, is just how small that body of work actually is.

In his short but hugely influential life, Robert Johnson spent only five days in the recording studio, recording only 41 total takes of 29 different songs. Thirteen of those takes and eight of those songs—including "Sweet Home Chicago" and "Terraplane Blues"—were captured during his first-ever session, on this day in 1936, in a makeshift studio set up in adjoining rooms of the Gunter Hotel in downtown San Antonio.

Johnson returned to the Gunter Hotel twice more later in that same week, and then recorded once more over the course of two days in 1937 in Dallas. The results of those sessions were twelve 78-rpm records issued on the Vocalion label in 1937 and 1938, the last of them after Johnson's death by poisoning at the hands of a jealous husband on August 16, 1938.

Almost immediately, Johnson's recordings gained a cult following among blues collectors like John Hammond, who would later gain fame as the "discoverer" of artists ranging from Billie Holliday and Big Joe Turner to Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin and Bruce Springsteen.

Yet from 1938 to 1961, when Hammond convinced Columbia Records to release an album of Robert Johnson recordings called "King of the Delta Blues," Johnson was more of a rumor than a reality.

"King of the Delta Blues," however, would spark a strong resurgence of interest in his life and work—a resurgence that would nevertheless fail to turn up many verifiable details of his life beyond the dates of his birth and death and of his few recording sessions.

Frank Beacham adds, "Thanks History.com."

Watch Robert Johnson perform "Crossroads" at:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd60nI4sa9A&feature=youtu.be&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DYd60nI4sa9A%26feature%3Dyoutu.be
.
.
.
<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>
.
.
ROBERT LEE “R.L.” BURNSIDE

by Frank Beacham

Robert Lee "R. L." Burnside was born 87 years ago today.

Burnside was a blues singer, songwriter and guitarist who lived much of his life in and around Holly Springs, Mississippi. He played music for much of his life, but did not receive much attention until the early 1990s.

In the latter half of the 1990s, Burnside repeatedly recorded with Jon Spencer, garnering crossover appeal and introducing his music to a new fanbase within the underground garage rock scene.

One commentator noted that Burnside, Big Jack Johnson, Paul "Wine" Jones, Roosevelt "Booba" Barnes and James "Super Chikan" Johnson were "present-day exponents of an edgier, electrified version of the raw, uncut Delta blues sound."

Burnside was born in Harmontown, Mississippi. He spent most of his life in North Mississippi, working as a sharecropper and a commercial fisherman, as well as playing guitar in juke joints and bars. He was first inspired to pick up the guitar in his early twenties, after hearing the 1948 John Lee Hooker single, "Boogie Chillen."

Burnside learned music largely from Mississippi Fred McDowell, who lived nearby in an adjoining county. He also cited his cousin-in-law, Muddy Waters, as an influence.

Burnside grew tired of sharecropping and moved to Chicago in 1944 in the hope of finding better economic opportunities. He did find jobs at metal and glass factories, had the company of Muddy Waters and married Alice Mae in 1949, but things did not turn out as he had hoped.

Within the span of one year his father, two brothers, and uncle were all murdered in the city, a tragedy that Burnside would later draw upon in his work, particularly in his interpretation of Skip James's "Hard Time Killing Floor" and the talking blues "R.L.'s Story," he opening and closing tracks on Burnside's 2000 album, "Wish I Was In Heaven Sitting Down."

Around 1959, he left Chicago and went back to Mississippi to work the farms and raise a family. He killed a man at a dice game and was convicted of murder and sentenced to six months' incarceration (in Parchman Prison). Burnside's boss at the time reputedly pulled strings to keep the murder sentence short, due to having need of Burnside's skills as a tractor driver.

Burnside later said "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."

His earliest recordings were made in the late 1960s by George Mitchell and released on Arhoolie Records. Another album of acoustic material was recorded that year and little else was released before Hill Country Blues, in the early 1980s. Recorded between 1980 and 1984 by Leo Bruin in Groningen, Netherlands. An album's worth of singles followed, released on ethnomusicology professor Dr. David Evans' High Water record label in Memphis, Tennessee.

In the 1990s, he appeared in the film Deep Blues and began recording for the Oxford, Mississippi, label Fat Possum Records. Founded by Living Blues magazine editor Peter Redvers-Lee and Matthew Johnson, the label was dedicated to recording aging North Mississippi bluesmen such as Burnside and Junior Kimbrough.

Burnside remained with Fat Possum from that time until his death, and he usually performed with drummer Cedric Burnside, his grandson, and with his friend and understudy, the slide guitarist Kenny Brown, with whom he began playing in 1971 and claimed as his "adopted son."

In the mid 1990s, Burnside attracted the attention of Jon Spencer, the leader of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, touring and recording with this group and gaining a new audience in the process.

Burnside's 1996 album A Ass Pocket of Whiskey (recorded with Jon Spencer) gained critical acclaim, earning praise from Bono and Iggy Pop. During this time he also provided the entertainment at private events such Richard Gere's birthday party.

After the death of Kimbrough and the burning of Kimbrough's juke joint in Chulahoma, Mississippi, Burnside quit recording studio material for Fat Possum, though he did continue to tour. After a heart attack in 2001, Burnside's doctor advised him to stop drinking; Burnside did, but he reported that change left him unable to play.

Burnside had been in declining health since heart surgery in 1999. He died at St. Francis Hospital in Memphis on September 1, 2005 at the age of 78.

Here, Burnside performs “Poor Black Mattie” in 1984:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=c8RtayjqqIw&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dc8RtayjqqIw%26feature%3Dyoutu.be
.
.
.
<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>
.
These two features originally appeared on New York-based writer / director / producer Frank Beacham’s site, where you can find MUCH more, at: www.frankbeacham.com
.
<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>
.
.
Direct to the current editions /
.
MOBILE-DEVICE-FRIENDLY editions load quickly at
.
www.acousticamericana.blogspot.com
.
<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>
.
CONTACT US / Questions / Comments / SUBSCRIBE to our notices, etc., all at
.
tiedtothetracks@hotmail.com
.
<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>
Contents copyright © 2013,
Lawrence Wines & Tied to the Tracks.
All rights reserved.
<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>
.
The ACOUSTIC AMERICANA MUSIC GUIDE endeavors to bring you NEWS and views of interest to artists everywhere, more specifically to musicians and the creative community, and music makers and fans of acoustic and Folk-Americana music, both traditional and innovative. We provide a wealth of resources, including a HUGE catalog of acoustic-friendly venues, and schedules of performances in Southern California venues large and small. We cover workshops and other events for artists and folks in the music industry, and all kids o’ things in the world of acoustic and Americana and accessible classical music. From washtub bass to musical spoons to oboe to viola to banjo to squeezebox, from Djangostyle to new-fangled-old-time string band music, from sweet Cajun fiddle to pre-bluegrass Appalachian mountain music to proto blues.
.
The Acoustic Americana Music Guide. We’re on it.
.
<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>-<^>
.
Sent via DroidX2 on Verizon Wireless™