Duwayne Burnside Acoustic (LP)

(Dolceola Recordings) 12 tracks

DUWAYNE BURNSIDE'S music is as primal as an alligator's backbone - as raw, earthy and fertile as the kudzu-covered terrain of the hills of northern Mississippi, where his family has defined the sound of the region's blues for more than half a century. And Duwayne's new album for Dolceola Records, Acoustic Burnside, was recorded on the very ground where the Burnsides planted their deep musical roots, and bristles with unvarnished authenticity and character.
When Duwayne - the son of legendary bluesman R.L. Burnside - sings and plays guitar on the 12 songs of Acoustic Burnside, it's as much an act of magic as musicality. His rising and falling voice and the driving tones of his acoustic six-string break through the clouds of time, transporting those lucky enough to hear him to a time when the blues were young and life was so carefree that the sound of an unplugged guitar could travel for miles over the hills to entice neighbors to a night of moonlight-soaked revelry.
"Most of the songs on this record I learned from my daddy," Duwayne says. "When I play them, I do my best to show respect and love for him and the music. When I play acoustic guitar, it goes back even further, because that music started without electricity. I think of all the musicians who came from the early days, from the Delta and the hills, and took their music to the big cities and all over the world. It makes me feel like I'm a part of that history.

That history comes alive in these performances, recorded between June 2018 and September 2019 at Duwayne's home in Holly Springs, Mississippi. On Poor Black Mattie - the anthem of hill country blues in the Magnolia State - he captures the swinging rhythmic intensity of the style and the jangly vocals. It's an approach defined by Mississippi Fred McDowell and refined by McDowell's first torchbearer, R.L. Burnside, to break through the noisy bustle of a crowded juke joint and get patrons dancing.