00:00:00 - 00:00:21
Speaker 1
We're back in Seoul country here with Cedric Burnside. So, two of season four. So here. All right. Man. Good to see you. Thanks for having me, man.
00:00:21 - 00:00:41
Speaker 2
Say you love me like I love you. And say you love me like I love you. I love the way we treat the other. Treated young. Yeah.
00:00:41 - 00:00:50
Speaker 2
And you don't really have to be there all. There's only love. Like I love you.
00:00:50 - 00:00:51
Speaker 1
My.
00:00:51 - 00:00:53
Speaker 2
Big daddy, R.L. Burnside. You know, I grew up in his.
00:00:53 - 00:01:18
Speaker 3
House amongst a lot of other grandchildren, you know, and he used to throw house parties every other weekend. And I will be one of many grandchildren just sitting there, you know, kicking up dust while the music going on. My dad, Calvin Jackson, you know, my uncles, Daniel Burnside and Joseph Burnside. And as they would play, man, I was one of, you know, the grandkids.
00:01:18 - 00:01:38
Speaker 3
I it was just amazing to me. I would look at them and, and I would be like, wow, what is this music? So around about ten years old. I was good enough to play in the juke joints. My uncle Gary Burnside, he was playing the bass. I was playing the drums. The area I come from and still there, I grew up in.
00:01:38 - 00:02:00
Speaker 3
It's the hill country. It's a blues that's unique to the surroundings that it from. I like to think of it as just a music within its own self, you know, with its own rights. It's different from any other blues you might hear. You know, when you think of blues, you think of 12 bar blues or one for five blues.
00:02:00 - 00:02:23
Speaker 3
But hill country is, you know, quite different from that. You know, I like to say what stands out is the unorthodox rhythm of the music. It's not just regular one, four, five pattern that you might be, you know, thinking about or listening at when you when you think about blues. My big daddy would play Muddy Waters, which is, you know, Delta blues.
00:02:23 - 00:02:44
Speaker 3
I would listen to it and I would love it, but I didn't know what it was at the time, nor did I know anything about, you know, the Delta blues from from Hill country, because all I grew up listening, that was hill country. And so got into Muddy Waters a little bit, of course, a little Robert Johnson.
00:02:44 - 00:03:13
Speaker 3
And then, you know, my, my big daddy would introduce us to Albert King, which is, which is from Memphis, not not far at all, but still quite different, you know. So, yeah, those those the cats I kind of listen that growing up.
00:03:13 - 00:03:14
Speaker 2
Around 2000.
00:03:14 - 00:03:40
Speaker 3
And three, I picked up the guitar and I, I decided to, you know, not put it down until I learned how to play the guitar. By the way, Luther Dickinson gave me my first guitar in 2003, and around about 2008 or 9, I had, you know, learned the the guitar enough to write 3 or 4 songs of my own.
00:03:40 - 00:04:01
Speaker 3
I'm not going to say I was great on the guitar, but I was good enough to, you know, learn, learn songs. And so I was playing with the with a guy named Lightnin Malcolm. The band was called Juke Joint Duo. I just took it upon myself to start getting up and playing those 2 or 3 songs that I had learned.
00:04:01 - 00:04:25
Speaker 3
You know, I didn't know if people was going to like it or not. When I got to where I can play what I heard in my head, you know, it was around 2011, 2012, you know, and I had got fairly, fairly good and good enough to go out on my own.
00:04:25 - 00:04:47
Speaker 3
So this song right here is called Please Tell Me, Baby, on one of my first albums that I ever recorded, you know, by by myself.
00:04:47 - 00:04:53
Speaker 2
Please tell me, baby.
00:04:53 - 00:04:58
Speaker 2
I don't know.
00:04:58 - 00:05:02
Speaker 2
Please tell me, baby.
00:05:03 - 00:05:05
Speaker 2
I can't, I don't know.
00:05:05 - 00:05:21
Speaker 1
Joe Walsh once said when I watch a guitar player, I watch his right hand because you got to have good rhythm to be a good player. But imagine if you're a drummer that's like kind of the door. You're right. So you could be good with the minimum amount of other things if you got that rhythm there.
00:05:21 - 00:05:21
Speaker 2
If you.
00:05:21 - 00:05:37
Speaker 3
Got that rhythm, you know, and I hear that a lot. You know, in my playing. People say I hear, you know, percussion in your playing and your guitar playing. And I said, you know, I like to think that's because, you know, I was a drummer first.
00:05:37 - 00:05:45
Speaker 1
What about guitar styles? You obviously got your family influences right there in the front. Do you have other main stylistic influences that you look to?
00:05:45 - 00:06:13
Speaker 3
I would say I like a lot of, you know, good top players. John Lee hooker is one of my, you know, all time favorites, along with Mississippi Fred McDowell. But I've been around my big daddy so long, you know, RL and I just always found myself going back to, you know, to him, you know, going back to what what he would do on the porch.
00:06:13 - 00:06:33
Speaker 3
You know, what I would see him do on the stage when I'm sitting, you know, on the drums behind him. So that's where I always go back to.
00:06:33 - 00:06:37
Speaker 1
What was the best advice you've received from other musicians?
00:06:37 - 00:07:07
Speaker 3
You know, one of the main things I heard a lot was don't stop, you know, keep doing you don't ever let anybody, you know, tell you how to do your music, you know, do your music the way you do your music because you're different. Different can be good, you know, if you stick with it. And one of the things my big daddy would always tell me is, you know, I always treat people like you want to be treated.
00:07:07 - 00:07:17
Speaker 3
He always knew. I think that music would always be a part of my life. And I will always have that, you know? But you got to have some sense with it.
00:07:17 - 00:07:31
Speaker 1
Talking about some other players here, but we mentioned Robert Johnson before he became an archetype, pre-war blues acoustic blues guy. And you recorded on a tribute album in 2011 for his centennial. How do you see his influence?
00:07:31 - 00:08:02
Speaker 3
I think he was amazing, you know, in his influence. For him to only record, you know, I think it was 27 songs total, you know, his whole entire life. Those 27 songs was freaking amazing, you know? And it taught. It taught a lot of people, you know, a lot of musicians loved his music, the Rolling Stones and I mean just so many people that he influenced.
00:08:02 - 00:08:28
Speaker 3
And I did a tour in 2012 with Big Head Todd and The Munsters, which, you know, loved Robert Johnson. And, you know, Mr. Hubert Sumlin would talk about Robert Johnson, how he loved the music. And I got I was fortunate enough to be on that tour with Mr. Honeyboy Edwards, who was like hand in hand with Mr. Robert Johnson, you know.
00:08:28 - 00:08:35
Speaker 3
Yeah, I think he's really amazing. And the music that he left here behind it will live on forever.
00:08:35 - 00:08:44
Speaker 1
Now, you've also been in a few movies I saw attempted in Big Bad Love and Black Snake Moan. But there are other movies that you were also in.
00:08:44 - 00:08:45
Speaker 2
Yeah.
00:08:45 - 00:09:09
Speaker 3
I actually got to do a headline movie, man. And I was the the main character in that movie called Texas Red, which was pretty amazing. Never been a main character in in anything, you know, too much like a movie. The movie was about this guy named Texas Red. He was from Mississippi. He owned the first juke joint. We finished it in 2021.
00:09:09 - 00:09:27
Speaker 1
What about when they did the deep blues? Deep blues? That was when I remember kind of getting tuned into the modern era juke joint kind of culture. Yeah, and it's for people who haven't seen it. Robert Palmer, the great rock journalist and blues guy, and he brings along Dave Stewart from the rhythmic. It's kind of a narrator was a strange brew there.
00:09:27 - 00:09:28
Speaker 1
But they find.
00:09:28 - 00:09:28
Speaker 3
The man.
00:09:29 - 00:09:30
Speaker 1
But yeah, he was an incredible.
00:09:30 - 00:09:30
Speaker 2
Such a good dude.
00:09:30 - 00:09:35
Speaker 3
And when we were sit and talk, he was just laid back and he. And he was just real.
00:09:35 - 00:09:46
Speaker 1
You get some exposure with the movie, and then the next year, you finally get the Grammy. I'd be trying 2022 Best Traditional. How do you feel about getting over the hump to winning a Grammy?
00:09:46 - 00:10:11
Speaker 3
I have to say, it was really surprising, but it felt awesome as I lived life. I try to incorporate just about everything that I feel like the universe has given me in that present time. I try to just incorporate everything, but I also try to evolve and just, you know, do something different every year. Every time I record an album.
00:10:11 - 00:10:29
Speaker 3
You know, I pray that I'm, I'm a little bit better than I was last year. You know, I'm not just in recording music, but in, in my songwriting, you know, in my singing and in all of that.
00:10:30 - 00:10:54
Speaker 3
This song was called I'm hurting. I'm not hurting too much anymore.
00:10:54 - 00:10:59
Speaker 2
I love my friend.
00:10:59 - 00:11:04
Speaker 2
Come to be there.
00:11:04 - 00:11:09
Speaker 2
And I'm going.
00:11:09 - 00:11:20
Speaker 2
I'm going. Yeah. I want my baby at home.
00:11:20 - 00:11:24
Speaker 1
Have you heard much of the African Guy Ali tour? Do you know him?
00:11:24 - 00:11:25
Speaker 4
Oh, wow.
00:11:25 - 00:11:26
Speaker 3
I have man.
00:11:26 - 00:11:28
Speaker 1
I was going to say you have something reminiscent.
00:11:28 - 00:11:54
Speaker 3
Yeah, I got turned on to Olive tour maybe about five years ago. I was, like, listening at the music, and it's before he started singing. So I heard the music and I was like, is that some underground Junior Kimbrough? And then he started singing and he was like, this is all of tours. And I was like, wow, you're before last 2024?
00:11:55 - 00:12:11
Speaker 3
I got a chance to do a few shows with his son drew. And, you know, it was one of the most amazing times that I, that I have had. And we talked about, you know, collaborating and doing an album together.
00:12:11 - 00:12:16
Speaker 1
You played, I guess, in many countries by now. Where do you find the most receptive audience for your style?
00:12:17 - 00:12:43
Speaker 3
I love Australia, but I have to say that most receptive audience they received, the Hill Country Blues very well. Is is France the youngest generation? You know, they, they they're like from ten years old to 12 to 16. And they loved the music so much man. And like they, they listened with passion and then they, they, you know, they play guitar.
00:12:43 - 00:13:10
Speaker 3
They, they play it with passion. They don't want to do any, anything messed up to, to make the music sound bad. They, they want to, you know, honor you and they want to play your music to the best of their ability. And so when we get there, they they sing in there, you know, the songs word for word, you know, and I and I think that's, you know, so amazing that they sing it word for word.
00:13:10 - 00:13:14
Speaker 3
And every time you go there, they treat you really, really nice.
00:13:14 - 00:13:27
Speaker 1
All right. So the time I do remember, I think we were talking about this when we were off camera was I saw you play at the Tower Records during Jazz Fest. Oh yeah. In the in New Orleans. And that was phenomenal. I think RL kept having the line like, you got to get me another beer because this one's got a hole in it.
00:13:27 - 00:13:30
Speaker 1
Yeah, they probably used that one.
00:13:30 - 00:13:37
Speaker 3
Yeah they used that all the time. This has got a hole in it man.
00:13:37 - 00:14:00
Speaker 1
RL Burnside eventually in the mid 90s goes on tour with John Spencer Blues Explosion. And then he does some stuff on stage and record with that band. Or they mix it up and then he does some with sampled back beats, tape loops and stuff. What was it like being around the band when you see a, I guess, a senior citizen guy taking some chances like that?
00:14:00 - 00:14:24
Speaker 3
Man, that's a great question. You know, when my big daddy first heard about John Spencer Blues Explosion, you know, Fat Possum called him. And I remember this like it was yesterday. And he was like, oh, you ever heard of John Spencer Blues Explosion? And my big daddy said, no, no, no, no. And he said, well, these guys want to, you know, they want to go on the road with you.
00:14:24 - 00:14:45
Speaker 3
They want you to open up for them and they want to pay you, you know, you know, pretty handsomely. And he was like, you know, okay. And they they called us down to Oxford, Mississippi, and they played us some of the music, Kenny and I and, you know, my big daddy, we sat there and we listen to a little bit of the music and, you know, John was hollering.
00:14:45 - 00:14:47
Speaker 4
Oh.
00:14:47 - 00:15:11
Speaker 3
The first song was Bad by Houghton's. Bad by Adams. I was like, okay. I looked at Kenny, Kenny looked at me. The Big Daddy looked at us, you know, we looked at each other and they talked about it, and and it was like, well, they want you to open up for, for them next weekend to, you know, kind of see what you, what you think about it and, and see where it goes from there.
00:15:11 - 00:15:28
Speaker 3
So they flew us to New York. We got there and John Manager came up to us. He was like, hey, man, thank you all for coming. Thank you all for coming. And it's like, hey, you ever heard these guys before? It was like just, you know, look big. They played a little bit for us, but you never heard them live.
00:15:28 - 00:16:00
Speaker 3
It's like no. He reached in his pocket. He he said him. Y'all going to need these. Gave us some earplugs. It turned out to be one of the most amazing experiences I have ever been around in my big daddy as well. John and my big Daddy just they just formed a bun. It was almost like a father son bun, you know, the music was so different, but the love was was strong and and compassionate.
00:16:00 - 00:16:25
Speaker 3
You know, for everybody in the band, we turn out to become really great friends. And, you know, just like, just like brothers, you know? And we toured off and on for two and a half, three years. And that's where that album come from as Pocket of Whiskey, you know, because we had got to know each other so, so well, enjoyed so much.
00:16:25 - 00:16:48
Speaker 3
John wanted to do an album together, and I remember my big daddy saying, no, I don't think that's going to sell. You know, I don't think that's going to sell. And, John was like, yeah, hey, you know, I, so, so what if it don't sell, man? Let's, let's just do something together. And they did. And it turned out to be, you know, one of my big daddy best selling albums.
00:16:48 - 00:17:07
Speaker 3
It changed his audience, you know, so he was no longer just playing for a blues audience. He was planned for a younger audience. Plus, you know, rock, rock audience that would come to John Show, they would come to Big Daddy Show because, you know, they got introduced to something different at John Show.
00:17:07 - 00:17:11
Speaker 1
So then he had albums that were more moving towards DJ and electronic kind of backup.
00:17:11 - 00:17:12
Speaker 3
Correct.
00:17:12 - 00:17:14
Speaker 1
That was that was even more unexpected.
00:17:14 - 00:17:14
Speaker 3
Yeah.
00:17:14 - 00:17:17
Speaker 1
Correct. He's the only blues guy I can think of. Bothered to go there.
00:17:17 - 00:17:19
Speaker 3
Carl Stover right.
00:17:19 - 00:17:40
Speaker 1
That was an unknown space to crossover. We call this podcast Soul Country. And it reminded me of, you know, there's country blues and there's, you know, where did this whole thing come from and go to that used to be there. And and Clint Eastwood once said there was only two original American art forms, jazz and the Western. So it's kind of like my country is very country and western.
00:17:40 - 00:17:45
Speaker 1
And so one of the things I like to ask about, and I do think a lot of culture comes off those old movies. Do you have any old favorite Westerns?
00:17:45 - 00:18:10
Speaker 3
What comes to my mind right now is Bonanza, because we used to watch it every single day, because that was one of my big daddy favorites. It would come on at 10:00 in the Am, and he would not miss it for nothing in the world. And so that's, that's really one of the main ones that come to mind that in Gunsmoke.
00:18:10 - 00:18:35
Speaker 3
I can tell you another thing that I noticed instantly, because that's how we grew up. We we once stayed in the house that had what the, what they would call a system. And, you know, would you go out and drop the bucket off in there and pull up the water? So, you know, just looking at that on the Westerns, it just bought back memories like, hey, hey, they, they, they live like like we live, you know.
00:18:35 - 00:18:43
Speaker 3
But of course it was on TV. So, you know, they made some, you know, make some money off that thing, but it just made me think about that.
00:18:43 - 00:18:58
Speaker 1
Yeah. How do you see all that? You mean, do you run into other Blues players much that are coming from just, you know, they grew up in a city and they they don't have that kind of reach to the country aspect of it because it seems like it's really crucial to get the full picture, to have some country in there.
00:18:58 - 00:19:26
Speaker 3
You know, that question reminds me of I did a festival in Helena, Arkansas, King Biscuit 20 1213, and I was on a panel. It was about four more other, you know, bands on this panel. And that subject come up like, you know, the old school, the old cats playing the music. They really lived what they played, you know.
00:19:26 - 00:20:01
Speaker 3
And so everybody on the panel was like on the impression that nobody up there really lived that lifestyle. So it was like, you know, we can talk until we blue in the face. But, you know, we, we just gone play this music in tribute to these cats that really paved the way and really live this lifestyle, you know, these cats that really lived to, you know, feed themselves off of this music, you know, whether they made enough money or not.
00:20:01 - 00:20:26
Speaker 3
You know, none of us up here is old enough to live that lifestyle of not having, you know, lights in the house and not having running water and all of that. And I had to stop the panel. I was like, no, I said, I actually live that life for many years, you know, to I was about 11, 12 years old.
00:20:26 - 00:20:53
Speaker 3
I lived that lifestyle not because I wanted to, because I didn't have a choice. You know, my big daddy was a sharecropper and they was like, you actually live without running water. I was like, I live without running water. I hauled water every day, you know, sometimes three times a day I would walk a mile and a half each way to haul water, you know, from the from the neighbor that will let us get water.
00:20:53 - 00:21:18
Speaker 3
I said we were haul water 4 or 5 times a day, you know, water to cook with, water to clean with, you know, water to bathe with. We would have to do all of that. And and they sat there and they was like a gate for, you know, several minutes like, wow. Just looking forward to a few collaborations from the movie centers.
00:21:18 - 00:21:45
Speaker 3
I got to do a couple of songs, you know, on that, on that soundtrack of that movie and just play with a lot of great musicians, you know, Tyranny Jackson from Southern Avenue and, you know, Alva Youngblood Hart, as well as Mr. Barbara Rush. And so we all just talked about, you know, great things and and hopefully, you know, some really, really great collaborations in the future.
00:21:45 - 00:21:48
Speaker 1
How would you like to be remembered in blues history as a legacy?
00:21:48 - 00:22:15
Speaker 3
I like for my music to be left here and remembered for, you know, the positive things that I can instill in people to make them, you know, they're better self, as well as my legacy to be here with, my daughters that love music and especially my my youngest daughter, Anna, she loved music. And so I think she's going to be the one that carry it on.
00:22:15 - 00:22:21
Speaker 3
I think she's going to be the very first, girl Burnside that play music.
00:22:21 - 00:22:23
Speaker 1
So, Cedric, thanks for coming by, Soul Country.
00:22:23 - 00:22:25
Speaker 2
Thanks for having me, man.
00:22:25 - 00:22:25
Speaker 1
It's awesome.
00:22:25 - 00:22:52
Speaker 3
Really great time.
00:22:52 - 00:22:57
Speaker 2
It's like a dream.
00:22:57 - 00:23:02
Speaker 2
It's really.
00:23:02 - 00:23:07
Speaker 2
Being a full time.
00:23:07 - 00:23:12
Speaker 2
Killifish.
00:23:12 - 00:23:17
Speaker 2
I was so blind.
00:23:17 - 00:23:22
Speaker 2
That's been.
00:23:22 - 00:23:27
Speaker 2
When I'm with you.
00:23:27 - 00:23:32
Speaker 2
I can see.
00:23:33 - 00:23:44
Speaker 2
Thank you for keeping it real. You know that's how to make me feel. You have to do now.
00:23:44 - 00:24:10
Speaker 2
Hey.
00:24:10 - 00:24:19
Speaker 2
Thank you for keeping it real. You know how to make me feel that you do now?
00:24:19 - 00:24:25
Speaker 2
Yes you do. Whoo, whoo!
00:24:25 - 00:24:31
Speaker 2
Thank you for keeping it real. You notice how to make me feel? Yes, you do now.
00:24:31 - 00:24:40
Speaker 1
Tune in again for more roots music, culture and law and find trailers, highlights, and playlists, as well as a full archive of episodes at Soul Country.
00:24:40 - 00:24:41
Speaker 5
Where we.
