Well, Well, Well . . .

Not a direct victim of Hurricane Katrina, Mississippi bluesman R. L. Burnside died yesterday at age 78. I first got turned onto him when I saw his spot in the documentary Deep Blues back when I was an undergraduate. R. L. (“Rule”) didn’t play it pretty; he was no Buddy Guy or B. B. King—heavy, monotonous drone chords, a low swamp grind that sounded like John Lee Hooker without a certain uptown sophistication. “Jumper on the Line” was the song that made me pick up the guitar, and I spent two years trying, ultimately unsuccessfully, to get me A chords to sound something remotely like his. He recorded with the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, but I always though the act he should be sharing a stage with was Sonic Youth. I’m not kidding.

I only saw him perform once, in Lexington, KY. His signature tagline, “Well, well, well . . .” (so expressive, that) filled the room. R. L. stuff is avaiable from the Fat Possum label, based out of Oxford Mississippi; they’re curretly offline, due, I’m assuming, to the storm. Too Bad Jim is the one I’d start with.