Given the importance of Como, Mississippi in blues history, it is surprising and saddening that there is rarely any live blues to be heard in …
Every year, the North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic is closed with an all-star jam of many of the great blues performers that appeared during the two days of the festival. This year’s jam included appearances from Kenny Brown, Duwayne Burnisde, Garry Burnside, Eric Deaton and Jimbo Mathus. It was definitely a great way to close out this year’s festival. 6/30/12
Kenny Brown and Duwayne Burnside, Beale Street Music Festival, Memphis, 5/6/12
Hill Country bluesman Kenny Brown grew up near Mississippi Joe Callicutt in Desoto County, and was eventually mentored by the late R.L. Burnside. He has been tireless in his effort to preserve the Hill Country Blues tradition, not only through his performances and recordings but through he and his wife’s organization of the North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic which is held in Marshall County, Mississippi each June. Here Kenny and Duwayne Burnside perform at the Southern Comfort Blues Shack at the Beale Street Music Festival in Memphis, 5/6/12. You can purchase Kenny Brown’s most recent album “Can’t Stay Long” here: http://devildownrecords.com/
Gary and Duwayne Burnside helped me get backstage at the Jim Dickinson Festival Monday night, while Son of Mudboy was on stage. They were followed by Jimbo Mathus and the Tri-State Coalition.
Duwayne Burnside and his band take the stage at the North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic at Foxfire Ranch, Waterford, Mississippi, June 25, 2011
The North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic is an annual two-day outdoor concert at which most if not all of the living hill country blues performers appear, as well as many younger artists from the hill country of Mississippi, many of whom play styles of music influenced heavily by the hill country tradition. But unfortunately, not everyone has the time or money to travel to Marshall County, Mississippi in June for the picnic, so it is fortunate that Devil Down Records has issued a North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic Volume 2 sampler, which amounts to an aural record of the 2010 picnic. There is gospel here by artists like Rev. John Wilkins and Duff Dorough. There is music on the thin line between alternative rock and country, such as “Little Hand, Big Gun” by Jimbo Mathus, or “Midnight in Mississippi” by Blue Mountain. There are aggressive, rock-influenced readings of hill country blues by artists such as Eric Deaton, Duwayne Burnside, Hill Country Revue and North Mississippi All Stars, and there are traditional blues performances by Alvin “Youngblood” Hart, T-Model Ford and Robert Belfour. Of course, no recording can perfectly capture the thrill of being present at such a history-making concert, but this sampler satisfies with consistently-good music throughout. A hidden final track is R. L. Burnside telling a joke from many years ago, like a reminder of his spiritual presence giving approval to the picnic, and this recording.
