R.L. Burnside - Come On In (1998) [CD Rip]

You have to give a guy credit for trying. In an age when most of the old blues players are either dead or too old to play, R.L. Burnside, the 71-year-old Mississippi native, can still rip dirty juke-joint blues in convincing fashion. Come On In attempts, with some success, to bring one of America's oldest musical forms into the 21st century by adding sampling and looping techniques to Delta blues. Come On In is a collaboration with Beck mixmaster Tom Rothrock and Alec Empire of Digital Hardcore. Seldom does one see the words "dub," "remix" and "programming" on a Delta blues album, but R.L. Burnside is no ordinary bluesman. Come On In is a risky move to say the least, and unfortunately, it doesn't always pay off. The best tracks in the album are the least techno-fied. "Come On In," a solo shot, and the down-and-dirty "Just Like a Woman" has a non-trip-hopped Burnside mining tough riffs for all their emotion. "Let My Baby Ride" with a stomping, looped beat, is still recognizable as Burnside and works well. On the other hand, "Don't Stop Honey" and "It's Bad You Know" take the techno tampering too far, and the results are feckless shells of what were once gritty blues. Next time out, if Burnside gets his ass pocket o' whiskey, turns down the techno a bit and cranks those amps up, he could be onto something. ~Matthew Hilburn