When it rains...
To add to our southern sorrows this week comes the news of the death of Delta bluesman R.L. Burnside. Those who say that there are no second acts in life, should take heed of Burnside's example. He worked as a sharecropper and fisherman until he was 67, only then taking up music professionally.
Burnside's life was the stuff of the blues. He moved north to Chicago in the 1940s, but went back south after his father and two brothers were killed in the city. He did time after shooting a man he said was trying to put him out of his home. "It was between him and the Lord, him dyin'," Burnside remarked in a 2002 New Yorker article. "I just shot him in the head." Although he was convicted of murder, he was released after six months. Listen to him launch into "Bad Luck and Trouble" with that great opening line, "If it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have had no luck at all", and you know he's telling the truth about poverty, racism, illiteracy, alcohol abuse, domestic violence and prison.
As soon as Burnside's music graced the soundtrack of the hit TV series The Sopranos, he was hotter than hot. Three years ago he made the trip from his native hill country near Holly Springs in Mississippi to New York City where he played at Richard Gere's birthday party, and he followed up with a gig at the Village Underground where those trooping backstage to shake his hand included Uma Thurman and Deborah Winger.
By the way, the afore-mentioned "Bad Luck and Trouble" is one of a dozen live tracks on the album Burnside on Burnside, which was recorded in San Francisco and Portland, Oregon, during his triumphant January 2001 march up the West Coast accompanied by his grandson Cedric on drums, and an "adopted" son, Kenny Brown, on guitar. This is his finest work since "Too Bad Jim" (1994), and if you're looking for the authentic North Mississippi blues sound with its heavy shuffle and one-chord guitar drones, this is as good as it gets.
Back to Burnside on Burnside. After five highly-charged numbers, the thirsty artist is getting ready to crank out "Walkin' Blues". One can sense the sweat, the smoke and the aroma of the Jack Daniels in the crowded club. And then up speaks Burnside: "After tonight, I'm not goin' to drink anymore, unless I'm by myself or with somebody." R.L. Burnside (1927-2005) RIP. When it rains, it pours.
Comments
Those who say that there are no second acts in life...
Are not paying attention. That would be F. Scott Fitzgerald. This site says:
This half aphorism, found in notes for a never-finished novel, is perhaps the most oft quoted of Fitzgerald's work, largely because it is both trenchant and almost perfectly wrong.
Yes. The second act, in a traditional drama, is where the heroes try to resolve their problem and fail. They don't succeed until the third act. Perhaps what Fitzgerald meant is that no one is paying attention during that second act. No one notices until you succeed.
Sorry for the tangent.
Posted by: Angie Schultz | September 3, 2005 7:12 PM