I’ve been exploring a style of music called Mississippi Hill Country Blues. I’m a lifetime blues lover: listening, playing, and singing. While I love the Delta Blues 12-bar structure, at times it becomes routine. Mississippi Hill Country Blues is just as bluesy but it takes liberties with the traditional blues structure: adding an extra measure here, throwing in another lyric line there, and sometimes vamping on the same chord if that’s what feels right. Instead of tight riffs and fancy licks, it's all about the groove. The result is paradoxically energizing yet hypnotic, surprising yet familiar, loose yet tight - in the right hands of course.
I’ve curated a few examples on YouTube which I offer with a WARNING: listening to this music can be addictive! I’m going to start with some recent interpretations of Mississippi Hill Country Blues with modern production value that is accessible to newcomers. Then I work my way back to the more primitive origins which might be an acquired taste. I chose these selections for both audio and visual appeal. These songs have excellent versions by several artists you can check into. Songs get passed along in North Mississippi.
The Black Keys - Crawling Kingsnake - Junior Kimbrough Cover - I saw it performed live at Pilgrimage Festival
North Mississippi Allstars - Rollin ‘n Tumblin - Traditional Cover - first recorded in 1926
DuWayne Burnside (son of RL Burnside) - Meet Me in the City - Junior Kimbrough Cover
RL Burnside - Let My Baby Ride - grandson Cedric Burnside on drums - well well well!
Junior Kimbrough - Most Things Haven’t Worked Out - not much video out there on Junior
Here I cover Daniel Norgren's Howling Around My Happy Home which I recorded while howling around my happy home
https://soundcloud.com/brian-charles-fleming/howling-around-my-happy-home
