R.L. Burnside & The Sound Machine - Raw Electric: 1979-1980 (Vinyl)

Gatefold Double LP With Bonus 12-Page Booklet

High Water Records was founded in 1979 by musicologist David Evans and Memphis State University, on a National Endowment for the Arts grant, to document local blues and gospel that the larger labels were passing over. R.L. Burnside was among the first artists Evans recorded for it, and the band he brought was a family one: sons Duwayne and Daniel on guitar, Joseph on bass, and son-in-law Calvin Jackson on drums. Evans described the Sound Machine as a fusion of rural and urban blues, funk, R&B and soul, and noted that it drew young audiences across northern Mississippi.

The seventeen performances collected here were recorded between August 1979 and August 1980. Most were taped at Burnside's home near Independence, Mississippi, with an audience in the room; the rest at locations in Memphis and elsewhere in Tennessee. Burnside is identified with North Mississippi hill country blues - drone-led guitar and rhythms rooted in the regional fife-and-drum tradition rather than in Delta conventions - and these sides document that approach with a full electric band behind it, including his readings of "Dust My Broom," "Rolling and Tumbling," "How Many More Years" and "Sitting on Top of the World."

The material was first collected on CD in 2001 by the Memphis label Inside Sounds. This is the High Water double-LP edition, catalog HWX 3728: seventeen tracks across four sides in a gatefold jacket, with a bonus twelve-page booklet of song commentary and archival photographs.

Burnside was born in Harmontown, Mississippi in 1926 and died in Memphis in 2005. He began recording for Fat Possum in Oxford, Mississippi in 1991 and stayed with the label until his death; these sessions predate that by more than a decade. After Calvin Jackson moved to Holland, Burnside performed mainly with guitarist Kenny Brown and his grandson Cedric on drums.

Tracklist

Side A

1. My Woman Done Left Me
2. You Don't Love Me
3. Dust My Broom
4. Pretty Woman
5. Last Night (I Lost the Best Friend I Ever Had)

Side B

6. Slippin' and Slidin'
7. Going Down South
8. Rolling and Tumbling
9. How Many More Years

Side C

10. Well, Well, Well
11. Leave Me and My Woman Alone (Friend of Mine)
12. My Baby Caught the Train (Who's Been Talkin')
13. Scrambling for My Shoes (Walking Blues)

Side D

14. Sitting on Top of the World
15. Searching for My Baby
16. Going Away, Baby
17. Jumper Hanging Out on the Line

Complete the Collection of 2:

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