Customer Reviews

Mr Wizard

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There is no other description for it: this CD has BALLS. Burnside unleashes the screaming, vengeful ghost of Elmore James to claim the Delta's muderous retribution on all the Chicago crap that has passed for "blues" over the last 3 decades. I dream that Buddy Guy, BB King, Eric Clapton, Kenny Wayne Shepard, and all the other popular "blues" guitarists are led to a one room shack surrounded by a blinding cotton field on a dirt road deep, deep in Mississippi. Outside RL and his band tear into the groove of "Alice Mae" with such ferocity it sounds like a freight train loaded with nuclear bombs slamming into a mountain. The blasphemers inside the shack wail and gnash their teeth as they beg for mercy for their terrible sins. RL's cataclysmic howl of "DID YOU SEE MY BABY?/CALL HER ALICE MAE!" summons a pillar of fire from the black sky to consume the shack and lay waste to the world.

That's what this CD sounds like.

When I say rocking I mean that sometimes Burnside and his accomplices sound as though they'd just as soon burn the place to the ground. RL Burnside specializes in extremely raw, loud Mississippi Delta blues. If you are interested in this type of music you should buy one of his records immediately. You will be amazed that such a brilliant and original old style Delta blues musician has come to prominance so recently (all of his records are from the late 80s and 90s).

While other records of his, particularly the brilliant "Too Bad Jim" are more emotionally affecting, this one rocks like crazy, as Burnside's deep John Lee Hooker-style vocals are joined by clattering drums, distorted guitars, wah-wah pedals and theramin, couresy of his grandson, his stepson, and various members of the John Spencer Blues Explosion.

You won't be seeing any RL Burnside videos on VH1 anytime soon, that's for damn sure. Don't be surprised if, after hearing the barbaric yawp that is "Mr. Wizard," you find yourself on the prowl for raw meat and anything in a catholic schoolgirl uniform. Make no mistake, though. There is much skill behind Burnside's savagery. RL seems to have a near telepatic musical bond with his band, which consists of Kenny Brown on slide guitar and Cedric Burnside(RL's grandson) on drums. Together, these three rock blues standards and Burnside originals six ways from Sunday. Somehow, they manage to come across as both assaultive and subtle. As a bonus, Burnside perfoms solo on two tracks and is ably backed by Jon Spencer & co. on two others. This record may put you off Bonnie Raitt and Johnny Lang for good.

This CD is raw & electric - and one of my all time favorites. I agree with one reviewer who said that he keeps trying to find another R.L. CD with this much energy, but can't. I doubt we ever will. If you like the "quieter", more traditional style of "Too Bad Jim", you may not find this to your taste. But for raw power and emotion, you won't find anything else like it. I think that's why I've played it so much over the past 5 years - it's just different. First you get lulled by "Over The Hill" and then crashed into with "Alice Mae". Also, check out the often overlooked gem on this collection - "Tribute To Fred". The range on this CD is about as big as the style allows. You'll reach for this whenever you don't want to hear the same old sounds.

What can I say this Cd kicks. Paked full raw unadulterated electric slide guitar just dripping with distortion. The first song is alittle weak compared to the rest of the disk, but the second song is so great it more than makes up for it. The slide guitar on the fourth track "Snake Drive" is amazing, listen how Kenny brown realy gets into it. Buy it!!

R.L. Burnside is a god among fans of dirty Delta Blues. His music makes you wanna get up and move, and if you don't, your listening to the wrong music. One of my favorite tracks has to be "Rollin' & Tumblin'," which is the base song of the remix "It's Bad You Know" from the album "Come on In." You can't help but smile when you listen to the fast paced and loud "Snake Drive" as his entire band goes to town. He is undoubtedly one of the best artists under Fat Possum Records (or anywhere for that matter), just about every album of his kicks out that nitty-gritty Delta vibe, but this one of Burnside's albums that does it the best. His soulful music is what real blues fans should be looking for. Buy it.

I dunno. I keep buying R.L.'s CDs in hopes that any of them come close to the screaming power on Mr. Wizard. R.L.'s an acquired taste to be sure, but I've found his other albums to be dull and meandering -- no structure, polish, flair. That said, Mr. Wizard is different: This album blows my mind every time I play the thing. "Snake Drive"...shudder. If you like your blues guitars loud and your singers elemental, get this CD. If you're a fan of R.L.'s other stuff, maybe you want to pass on this one.

It was the fall of '97 and I was minding my business, scarfing some bargains from a local new & used music store, when over the shop stereo came blaring what I can only rather lamely describe as a 'skronk stomp' punctuated by sporadic, though authoritative, vocals and frenzied (and occasionally wah-wah'ed) slide guitar -- all ending with an appropriate "Well, well!" Thus my introduction to the song "Snake Drive", and the man -- R.L. Burnside. Thankfully I have never been much of a purist in regard to anything, and the blues is certainly no exception to my personal rule. This is gutbucket blues with some splattered brains and a couple displaced eyeballs added to the (un)savory mess. Believe the other reviewers when they tell you how raw and nasty -- and doggone satisfying -- this CD is. As a fringe benefit the Jon Spencer & Co. emissions are kept to a minimum on this release (I know it's hard ,Jon, but keep it in your pants...you and your boys already popped your cork all over 'A Ass Pocket of Whiskey'). As for you folks who count yourself in the purist camp...not to worry...Burnside has released a bit of good acoustic material as well as a great CD of more traditional electric blues 'Too Bad Jim'. Fanciers of 'Mr. Wizard may want to give R.L.'s 2001 live release 'Burnside on Burnside a spin. To me it's all good as long as it hasn't been copiously spewed upon by wannabes or overtly tweaked by Fat Possum executives. Enjoy this drunk or sober it's 99.44% raunch...and, in terms of the blues, you can't get much purer than that.

BEING A 56 YEARS YOUNG ENGLISHMAN, WITH MUSICAL TASTES FROM SINATRA, MATT MONROE, ELVIS, THE BEATLES TO - WELL AS AN ABSOLUTE LED ZEPPELIN FANATIC, I HAVE TO SAY THAT THIS MAN IS NOW ON TOP OF MY PLAYLIST ON MY PC, ABOVE LED ZEPP, AND THAT HAS BEEN A TOUGH DECISION. I CAME ACROSS THIS GUY ON A BBC RADIO 2 SATURDAY MORNING SHOW, AND THE REST IS HISTORY!! HE HAS THE BEST GUTTERAL TONES, GUITAR, HOME FEELINGS FROM THE DELTA, IT IS PURE MAGIC. THANKS RLB FOR INTRODUCING ME TO A STYLE I HAD NEVER HEARD OF. IT IS A GREAT JOY TO ME THAT I FOUND YOUR MUSIC JUST BEFORE YOU LEFT FOR BLUES HEAVEN.. I SAY -BUY THIS MAN'S MUSIC, IT IS GENIUS...

And now it's time for a brief meditation on the question of "authenticity" in music.

You might have noticed the review titled "an unstoppable force of nature" from "A Constomer." If you didn't, well, just know that A Costomer ranted and raved at some length about how this was "the real blues," and how "Burnside unleashes the screaming, vengeful ghost of Elmore James to claim the Delta's murderous retribution on all the Chicago crap that has passed for `blues' over the last 3 decades." Which is deeply ironic for a couple reasons. The first is that R.L. Burnside and Elmore James were both from the northern hill country of Mississippi--not the Delta. A few Blues musicians who really WERE from the delta would be Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and Sonny Boy Williamson, to name a few; those men eventually made their way north in the great postwar urban migration before recording "all the Chicago crap." Oh, and the most ironic touch of all: The Mr. Wizard album is a late-career collaboration R.L. Burnside did with a band called The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion--a trio of white musicians from New York. Now THAT is authentic :)

This is what happens when hipsters start raving about "authenticity." They embarrass themselves.

So why am I making fun of this guy? It's not that I expect everyone to know every little detail about the musicians they love--music isn't supposed to be a research project, it's supposed to be FUN. And I happened to like the Mr. Wizard album, too. But I didn't waste a lot of time worrying about how "authentic" that record was, and neither should you. If a song is good, it doesn't matter if the singer was poor, or how small a label he was signed to, or what color the guitarist's skin is. To me, that's every bit as stupid as worrying about whether the music you're listening to is "fashionable" or not. Fashions change, standards of authenticity get murky and confusing, but quality is quality; you can't fake a good song any more than you can fake a good meal.

If a song is good, it's good. There's nothing wrong with appreciating something beautiful just for being beautiful. And this is one beautiful record.