R.L. Burnside

Robert Lee Burnside was a Mississippi hill country blues guitarist whose raw, hypnotic, drone-based style became the foundation of the Fat Possum Records sound in the 1990s. Born near Oxford, Mississippi, he learned guitar from Mississippi Fred McDowell and played local juke joints for decades in near-total obscurity before being recorded by folklorist George Mitchell in the 1960s. His career took off in the 1990s when Fat Possum paired him with producer Tom Rothrock and released albums that introduced his trance-like, one-chord boogie to alternative rock audiences. His collaboration with the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, 'A Ass Pocket of Whiskey,' was a landmark in the fusion of punk and hill country blues. He became a patriarch of the North Mississippi blues scene, with several children and grandchildren who also perform.