YOU CAN'T VISIT the Y place where hill country blues, the hypnotic strain of blues that developed in the kudzu-wrapped hills of northern Mississippi, had its 1990s heyday. The elders - Junior Kimbrough and R.L. Burnside, chief among them - are no longer alive. And the club where they performed outside Chulahoma, Mississippi, is long gone.
There has been no greater embodiment of the rural blues that germinated in the hill country than Junior's Place, the famed juke joint owned by the often-bawdy bluesman Kimbrough. Like the music played within its walls, it was an unpretentious place, a simple, wood-frame building shielded from the elements by sheets of rusted tin roofing, with a dirt parking lot and frontage along a lonesome state highway. Kimbrough’s juke had few rules, and most were scrawled onto white paper signs posted outside the door: No drugs or outside booze were allowed into the club, but patrons could buy cold beer from an upright refrigerator, and homemade corn whisky, once they went inside. The building had been a church and a general store before it became the juke unofficially known as Junior’s Place, ostensibly because it had no formal name. Sunday was the day to be there, usually, and the music went all night.
Of course, it wasn’t the first juke in the area, and it wasn’t the last. But during the ’90s, Junior’s Place hosted countless performances by Kimbrough and Burnside, who often recruited their kids and grandkids to back them on drums, bass and sometimes a second guitar. Cedric Burnside, a grandson of R.L., whose 2021 album, I Be Trying, won a Grammy, started playing drums in jukes before he was a teenager.
Esta historia es de la edición November 2022 de Guitar Player.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 8500 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición November 2022 de Guitar Player.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 8500 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
Steel of a Deal
Jerry Byrd’s Steel Guitar Favorites packs a heap of American styles in one outstanding disc.
The Knockoff That Became a Knockout
Forced to stop copying U.S. guitars, Ibanez launched the all-original Artist line and took America by storm.
UNCOMMON FOLK
He grew up in a folk music haven. As he celebrates his latest album, Wide Open Light, Ben Harper shares sights and memories of his childhood home.
WILD SIDE
After Lou Reed's Berlin concept album bombed, guitarists Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner helped him get his groove back. The result was Rock 'n' Roll Animal, the live classic that redeemed his spirit and saved his career.
'THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF OUR BAND IS TWO GUITARS'
Sleater-Kinney were making bass-less records long before the White Stripes and the Black Keys came along. Says co-leader Carrie Brownstein, \"The power comes from the conversation the guitars are having with each other.\"
YOUR INFLUENCES STICK WITH YOU
Scott Henderson spent lockdown training his ears and building improv skills. As Karnevel! shows, his jazz chops flourished, but his blues-rock roots remain as strong as ever.
EYE ON THE PRIZE
Erstwhile blues-rocker Hannah Wicklund finds her true self with an album of songs she calls the most authentic I’ve ever written.”
'I PLAY LESS NOTES THESE DAYS, BUT THEY ALL MEAN A LOT MORE'
On Broken, Walter Trout packs his licks for maximum impact as he testifies to the hope that can save our divided world.
TIP SHEET
Think effects are a crutch? Reeves Gabrels has a few choice words and good advice) for you.
WATER UNDER THE BRIDGE
As he releases One Deep River, Mark Knopfler reflects on the guitars he's loved, the music that keeps his passion youthful... and how he'd like a do-over on that Dire Straits Rock Hall induction.