R.L. Burnside

Blues guitarist R.L. Burnside was born in Oxford, Mississippi, in 1926. He learned how to play the guitar while watching Muddy Waters and Mississippi Fred McDowell play at various house parties held around the Mississippi Delta. Later he went out on his own and made the rounds of Delta "juke joints", where his unique percussive style of guitar playing gained him a following in the Delta. He had been playing for many years before he made his first record, in the late 1960s. In 1971 he went on a European tour and developed a very loyal following there. He has since recorded albums for both American and European labels.