Kicking Off A New Year With Lightning Malcolm at Red’s

It may have been cold outside, but the new year got off to a hot start at Red’s Lounge in Clarksdale, Mississippi, with a live performance by Lightning Malcolm, one of the youngest generation of bluesmen who were mentored by R. L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough and who help to preserve the unique Hill Country style of Mississippi blues. As for Red’s, it is really one of the last juke joints still functioning on a more-or-less regular basis, and one of the few places in the Delta where the state’s best blues artists appear frequently. The little lounge is routinely filled to the brim, as it was on this particular night as Malcolm treated the crowd to a mix of blues standards and material from his latest album Rough Out There. Not only was the club filled, but the dance floor as well.