Customer Reviews

You Better Run: The Essential Junior Kimbrough

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You thought Robert Johnson's Hellhound On My Trail was spooky? You haven't heard anything until you've heard Junior Kimbrough's You Better Run. How this brand of blues was overlooked for so many years is inexplicable, yet understandable as the Mississippi delta and Chicago styles of blues dominates what record labels choose to release. But up in the hill country of north Mississippi a different style of blues developed. You can hear echoes of it in Mississippi Fred McDowell and John Lee Hooker. Thank God that Fat Possum Records brought bluesmen like Kimbrough, RL Burnside, and T-Model Ford into the studio and preserved this music for future generations. Start here, then search Amazon for "Fat Possum." You will never listen to blues the same way again.

You Better Run purports to be "The Essential" Junior Kimbrough and there is no doubt that this compilation of Junior's material is some of his best work and is representative of his limited releases. However, when you consider that Junior released only 6 CD's during his abbreviated career, it seems that the material contained on all 6 discs would qualify as "essential". If you are not familiar with the driving, trance like rhythms of Junior, this is a good place to start. If you like what you hear, buy all 6 of his CD's. You will not be disappointed.

A Juke Joint by definition is a Blues & BBQ club in the American South. Junior's Place was a juke joint of national acclaim hosting such local acts as R.L. Burnside, T-Model Ford, and Asie Payton. The building that also served as his home stood for 130 years, and burned to the ground less than month after Junior's Death. As a testament to a forgotten musician, The Essential Junior Kimbrough is a collection of his eclectic blues recordings over the years. Kimbrough released his first full-length album at the age of 62 on Fat Possum Records. From the 1969 45rpm version of "Release Me" to his Fat Possum versions of "All Night Long" and "Sad Days", Junior conveyed pure emotion into every one of his tracks. You can actually feel his pain listening to the music, but you will also embrace it when you come to the realization that this was everything the man truly was. It draws upon the souls of old Mississippi Hill Country Bluesman, and captures a sound truly unique to an area. A sign stood outside of Junior's Place that simply read: "If you can't read this, get someone to help you read this." This pretty much personified everything that he was: If you didn't understand, then you shouldn't be there

I highly recommend this as a place to get into Kimbrough's music, having heard his songs covered by Mississippi All-Stars and, most wonderfully, by Buddy Guy on Sweet Tea. I will certainly be going back into Mr. Kimbrough's own work, though, for the edge of violence, of morality threatened by desire, which, I guess, is the theme of all good blues lyrics. But it's not the lyrics: it's the hypnotic drive, the bouncing line of repeated rhythmic figures and unexpected syncopations holding aggressive, if not violent, control on the verge of ecstasy. All said and done, though there won't be many explicit warnings, it's way more erotically charged and scarey than the hip-hop boys even approach. This is way good. Buy it.

Even though I already had all of Kimbrough's Fat possum discs, I still love this album. It has all his greatest songs which eliminates the process of selecting the songs from all his verious albums. It also contains the duet between Kimbrough and his long time friend and rockabilly pioneer Charlie Feathers. If you like the music here you should not only check out his fatpossum realeses but also his "Do The Rump" album on Hightone records. This is a compilation worthy of the Mississippi Hill country blues master himself. Junior would have been proud of it. Rest In Peace Jonior. You are missed

Though I'd heard of Junior Kimbrough and read about him in Robert Palmer's seminal "Deep Blues", I really didn't appreciate Kimbrough's talents until I picked up a Rough Guide compilation of Delta blues. In a word: astonishing. The song "Meet Me in the City" creates a portrait that haunts the very core of your being. New feelings seem to emerge every time I listen to it. Kimbrough's work was stark, chilling, touching, tender, sad and hopeful all at the same time. Though a gifted guitarist, it was his voice that created a haunting and visceral connection to the Holy Trinity of Robert Johnson, Son House and Charlie Patton. Highly recommended if you love the original blues, without Chicago-style frills.

hey now...
i dont think that these are the best recordings of these songs, but i do know this: mr. kimbrough anem get down!!! his guitar playin is fierce, not studio-fierce, but been-out-drinkin-and-chasin-woman-til-they-men-came-lookin-for-me-fierce!
raw and honest...
(the REAL soul music is over here!)

For those who value the unspoiled era of Blues music, You Better Run: The Essential Junior Kimbrough is a highly recommended addition to your collection. The music is pure.

Nothing slick and polished about this music. Just good dirty, distorted, gritty, grungy blues. If Nirvana and Pearl Jam had been blues bands this is probably what it would have sounded like. If you listen closely on a few songs you can hear a missed note or two but rather than deter from the music it enhances it. You feel like you're in some dark, smokey blues joint late in the night. Considering all of these tracks were cut in the 1990s with the exception of the opening track I guess you could say this is modern blues but it sounds old yet fresh.

Jazz legend George Benson once said,"you can ask everyone to describe jazz or blues and no two people will ever say the same thing".Well guess what, if you wanna know what the blues looks like,take a look at this album! You wanna know what it sounds like,just listen! Haunting,dark,unashamed,dangerous,disturbed,hipnotic,aged,sick,damaged,rough,imposing,naked,soulful and BAD!