Customer Reviews

A Bothered Mind

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

There have been a lot of efforts to bring old timey blues into mainstream, more modern forms of rock and hip hop. RL has been a constant perpetrator in this effort, commenting famously "the blues is just dance music." That said, this is probably my favorite album of his. I have "Ass Pocket of Whiskey", "Burnside on Burnside", "Come On In", and "Wish I Was In Heaven Sitting Down." I got "A Bothered Mind" recently and it's plain the best of all of what RL has tried to do.

"Come On In" was too dancey and felt like a bunch of DJs just had fun with some RL samples and then he put it out of an album, however interesting that sounded. This both puts RL with Hip Hop Producer and MC extraordinaire Lyrics Born, an amazing team, and in front of a huge backup band that includes his regular touring band of Kenny and Cedric, and also a DJ, Keyboards, and others. The result is RL's punk-blues is fattened up and funked up into a wall of sound that his gravely voice plows right over naturally. This big band sound really showcases how RL's work and songs sound great in minimal settings ("Ass Pocket" and "Burnside on Burnside") but leave tons of room to play around with. The keyboard work is particularly great and adds a lot to the carnival of raucous noise. I recommend this album as the first of RL's anyone buys and no serious RL fan should be without it. Even Lyrics Born, the Asian rapper from San Francisco, sounds blues and countrified on the tracks he produces with RL.

In a characteristically memorable remark, R.L. Burnside once suggested that "Blues aint nothin' but dance music." Considering the fiery grooves guys like Lightnin' Hopkins or Little Walter whipped into now and then, that statement does not seem as absurd as it is on the surface. But what Burnside achieves on "Bothered Mind" is a total and inarguable confirmation: if Blues was anything more than dance music before Burnside took a torch to it, it sure aint nothing more than that now, and that's hardly a bad thing. "A Bothered Mind" is the sound of Skip James by way of the Beastie Boys. "I do what I want," Burnside spits on "Detroit Boogie part 1," an opening cacophony that launches into an electrified and snarling take on Burnside's trademark "Look What My Buddy Did." The man's not kidding. Unlike Bo Diddley's blasphemous "This Should Not Be," Burnside's eclectic brew of funk, hip-hop, blues and rock is as tasteful a reinvention of a storied sound as anyone could have asked for. Even the unfortunate presence of Kid Rock - a talentless poser who seems bent on mooching off the reputation of every elder statesman in the business - cannot distract from Burnside's energetic and menacing vocal performance throughout the set. This is not an attempt at dressing up an older artist's sound to make him seem hip to a younger audience. It is a startlingly successful (and refreshing) experiment in which Burnside's authenticity is never compromised by production. Bold interpretations of standards like "Rollin ' and Tumblin'" or "Goin' Away Baby" possess the addictiveness of a narcotic. When Martin Scorsesee's Blues film and box-set came out, there was a lot of talk about Blues music fading from the American consciousness, like some relic of human expression. Most disconcertingly, Blues did not seem to connect with younger audiences the way rap, hip-hop or even rock did. That changes now, and who better than R.L. Burnside to lead the charge?

This is the best CD I have heard in a long time. Even some bums on the street heard me listening to it in my car and just had to ask what it was. R.L Burnside and Lyrics Born are a unique and fabulous collaboration.

I can only hope to see R.L. live in concert one day. This is one of the best Blues albums (or any type for that matter) to grace a CD. Inventive, unusual, hip, funky and smooth all rolled into one. Two words: "Buy It!"

I have all of R.L.Burnside CDs and this is one of my favorites. It is fast paced and great for working out at home or gym. He has younger singers with him on many songs which keep the music more in style with the younger listeners. But the beat of the songs is what is contageous and makes you want to move around. Everyone will love this CD. Gary

This is a great CD and RL B. is awesome!! I wish I could have seen him in real life!

This isn't R.L. Burnside. This is a conflagration of hip-hop and rap artists taking R.L. Burnside's work and hacking it to pieces, capitalizing on R.L.'s fame and history.

I wouldn't waste your money if your a fan of his works as a delta blues artist. This just isn't worth it.

I'd be able to give this some credit if it was approached with some real composition/arrangement talent, but it's not. It's average, which is hardly fair to R.L., who is one of the fathers of the Delta/Hill Country Blues culture.

It isn't all bad, but I think 'Heaven/Sitting' and 'Come On In' are much more cohesively mixed together. This remix album, his last (R.I.P.), feels more like a bunch of leftover material thrown together, but it's also the most varied, which can work as either a plus or minus, depending on the mood you're in.

First of all, the tracks with guest performances are okay, much more polished and conventionally structured as songs than most of the material on these three albums. I can't stand Kid Rock, however, and for me he just destroys a potentially great track. Lyrics Born does some lend some interesting vocals to a couple songs, but they tend to stand out a bit much, going too far into hip hop territory.

See What My Buddy Done and Bird Without A Feather are two that sound pretty much 'un-remixed'; they're nice to hear, especially since 'Bird' is an extremely old recording (one of his best original compositions in my opinion), though another un-remixed recording of 'Buddy' is also available on Heaven/Sitting so it does kind of lose interest there.

Getting to hear the original versions of Shake 'Em On Down and Rolling Tumbling is a real treat, definitely one of the major positives of this album.

The hard-hitting Detroit Boogie 1-2, Go To Jail, and Stole My Check are all really great pieces but totally clash with the hip hop-oriented tracks like Someday Baby, Glory Be, and Goin' Down South, which furthers the feeling of mix-matchedness.

Overall, this feels like a bunch of leftovers getting served, and while most of the tracks are what you would expect from another Burnside remix album (along with a bunch of great untouched material) I can't help but feel this is the weakest one of the trilogy. Still, it's totally worth getting if you like anything else of Burnside's (though it seems the fans of more 'classic' Burnside blues will want to look elsewhere).

I Believe this last recording of the Great R. L. Burnside points to the future of Blues Recordings! As the Younger generation begins to pickup on the sounds and the feeling of the old country blues,they are beginning to infuse a Hip Hop feel to the music;you can clearly hear in this recording AND IT WORKS! Showing that the old delta blues of the 1950's and the Hip hop of 2000's has a lot of similarities.With people like Kid Rock guest starrin and other rappers, the future of Pop music will still have the blues!

R.L. Burnside has inspired many artists to create their music, and dig deeper into the blues roots. "A Bothered Mind" features two tracks with Lyrics Born; "Goin' Down South" and "Someday Baby," a few old and new untouched solo tracks, "My Name Is Robert Too" with Kid Rock, and the re-mixed classics you can get down and dirty to. The original recordings are new and old; the Mitchell archive is tapped for a few minutes, as is some 1990's Fat Possum Juke-Joint Caravan goodness with Kenny Brown and grandson Cedric Burnside. These records are important because they bridge the gap for young folks over to the dying history of the blues, yet leave the rawest parts untouched and exposed. It's another new direction with a smile for the faithful Burnside Purists, a testament to the indy rockers and punk generation who discovered R.L. through The John Spencer Blues Explosion, and a new offering in a funky electronic mindset. -All content copyright www.maximumink.com