Limited 150 gram vinyl LP pressing of the seminal first studio recording by the legendary R.L. Burnside. Recorded by folklorist David Evans for High Water Records in 1979 and 1980, these are Burnside's first recordings with electric guitar and also his first with a band. That band was the Sound Machine, a band he literally created himself out of members of his own family, blending raw Mississippi blues with soul, funk, R&B, and other urban flavors to make a marvelous amalgam of his own. Contemporary beats and modern themes like Bad Luck City, Searching for My Baby, Can't Let You Go, and Sound Machine Groove sit nicely alongside slower, traditional material like Going Down South and Begged for a Nickel, while R.L.'s duets with drummer Calvin Jackson on Goin' Away Baby and Long Haired Doney show a marvelous empathy and interplay. Especially notable is a version of Sitting on Top of the World with Burnside on slide guitar that, with Jackson's help, neatly evokes the sound and feel of a fife and drum band. Although Burnside is presently the darling of the blues crowd and hailed as something of an overnight success, one listen to this disc tells you he was already forging a new chapter in the Mississippi blues tradition with these recordings. Shake Little Baby, Rolling and Tumbling, Bad Luck City, Going Down South, Sound Machine Groove, Sitting on Top of the World, Begged for a Nickel, Can't Let You Go, Jumper Hanging Out on the Line, Searching for My Baby, Long Haired Doney/Pretty Woman/Goin' Away Baby
