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The Roadhouse on KEXP Presents: Cedric Burnside w/ Gravelroad- A Tractor 30th Anniversary Show
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The official credit tells it like it is. “Recorded in an old building in Ripley, Mississippi” – that’s all the info we get, and all that we need.
When Cedric Burnside prepared to record Hill Country Love, the follow-up to his 2021 Grammy-winning album I Be Trying, he set up shop in a former legal office located in a row of structures in the seat of Tippah County, a town with 5,000 residents that’s known as the birthplace of the Hill Country Blues style.
“That building was actually going to be my juke joint. Everything was made out of wood, which made the sound resonate like a big wooden box,” said Burnside. He called up producer Luther Dickinson (co-founder of the acclaimed North Mississippi Allstars and the son of legendary Memphis producer/musician Jim Dickinson), who brought recording equipment into the empty space. “We recorded in the middle of a bunch of rubbish – wood everywhere and garbage cans,” Burnside says. “We just laid everything out the way and recorded the album right there.”
The 14 songs on the record were finished in two days, but in addition to being satisfied with the sound, Burnside believes that Hill Country Love represents real creative progress. “Every time I write an album, it's always different,” he says. “I'm always looking to express myself a little bit better than I did on the last one and talk about more things happen in my life. I think that every day that you’re able to open your eyes, life is gonna throw you something to write about and to talk about.
“So on this album,” he continues, “I'm a little bit more upfront and direct, because I went through some crazy feelings with family and with friends. Winning the Grammy was awesome, but people tend to treat you a little different when things like that happen.”
Certainly, plenty of things have happened in Cedric Burnside’s life since he went on the road at age 13, drumming for his grandfather, the pioneering bluesman R.L. Burnside. His two albums before I Be Trying – 2015’s Descendants of Hill Country and 2018’s Benton County Relic – were both nominated for Grammys. He has also appeared in several films, including Tempted and Big Bad Love (both released in 2001) and the 2006 hit Black Snake Moan, and he played the title character in 2021’s Texas Red.
Burnside is a recipient of a National Heritage Fellowship, the country’s highest honor in the folk and traditional arts and was recently recognized with the 2024 Mississippi Governor's Art Award for Excellence in Music. He has performed and recorded with such diverse musicians as Jimmy Buffett, Bobby Rush, and Widespread Panic.
Gravelroad
Full-blown ambassadors of the blues, Seattle's own GravelRoad are sending another charge into their beloved
Mississippi Delta source material with a ninth release, a Jack Endino-engineered blues rocker DUTY TO WARN. On their ninth album, DUTY TO WARN explores GravelRoad's well-earned weaving guitar interplay-earned with tens of thousands of miles of touring through the US and Europe in support of their last eight albums over 20 years. Truly, GravelRoad are a confident, masterful institution of guitar-driven blues with a passion for the
heavy back beat and storytelling. This is the band's fourth release with co-conspirator Jack Endino, with the rock institution helming engineering, mixing and mastering duties. Endino also worked with the band on CROOKED NATION (2019),
CAPITOL HILL COUNTRY BLUES (2016) and EL SCUERPO (2014). While maintaining a base with gigs at Tractor Tavern, Sunset, Slim's Last Chance and The Funhouse, GravelRoad has continued to pile up the frequent flier points, touring Europe and the US consistently for the last decade. The band's songs are featured in the TV shows POWER ("Monkey with a Wig" Season 5 epi 3); ARROW ("The Run" epi 512); BLOODLINE ("The Run" epi 302), THE AFFAIR ("Bring Me Back" epi 104) among other movie
and TV show appearances. Like earlier proselytizers Canned Heat and Mike Bloomfield, GravelRoad apprenticed the genre, traveling to their beloved Hill Country section of Mississippi and helping their good friend T-Model Ford (James Lewis Carter Ford) tour the US, performing as his band at ALL TOMORROW'S PARTIES, among other festivals. With T-Model, GravelRoad recorded the outstanding TALEDRAGGER (Alive Natural Sound 2011) and LADIES MAN (2010),
masterful performances captured to vinyl to preserve the legacy of one of the great characters of the blues. The band continues pushing into new territory, but their legacy of documenting and supporting this unique American folk art continues. The band maintains a presence in Mississippi, appearing regularly at blues festivals
including the Deep Blues Festival in Clarksdale, Mississippi. with DUTY TO WARN, and their accompanying US and European tour, GravelRoad continue to record, tour, and
bring it where it needs to be brought, celebrating the guitar, the beat, the joy and the groove.