Blues legend passes away - NME.COM

BLUES LEGEND PASSES AWAY



RL BURNSIDE has died aged 78.

One of the last great bluesmen of the Mississippi, he passed away at St Francis Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, after suffering a heart failure (September 1).

Burnside underwent bypass surgery last year following a heart attack, but never fully recovered.

Born on November 21, 1926, in Mississippi’s Harmontown, Burnside spent most of his left in the north of the state, working as a sharecropper and a commercial fisherman, as well as playing guitar at weekend house parties.

Folklorist George Mitchell recorded the guitarist for the first time in 1968 and in 1991 Burnside signed to Mississippi-based Fat Possum Records.

His 1994 debut ’Too Bad Jim’ was produced by former New York Times music critic Robert Palmer and in 1996, Burnside recorded the crossover collaboration ’A Ass Pocket o’ Whiskey’ with the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion expanding his profile to a wider audience.

Material from his 1998 LP ’Come On In’ was featured in several films and television shows and the track ’It’s Bad You Know’ was included as part of the soundtrack to ’The Sopranos’.

Burnside’s last album ’A Bothered Mind’ was released last year.

He is survived by his wife Alice Mae, twelve children and numerous grandchildren.