CEDRIC BURNSIDE & LIGHTNIN' MALCOLM Source: Blues Revue Magazine Date: 01/2009 Writer: Don Wilcock

This is pure, primal Mississippi Hill Country blues. Cedric Burnside is R.L. Burnside’s grandson, and he grew up playing drums with his grandfather in front-porch jams, kicking up dust and zoning out on the beat that’s captured the imagination of three generations of blues fans and inspired such trendy acts as the White Stripes and the Black Keys. His partner, Lightnin’ Malcolm, grew up in rural Missouri, but he’s played guitar with Hill Country notables from R.L. Burnside and Jesse Mae Hemphill to Otha Turner and Junior Kimbrough.

When a sound as addictive and distinctive as Hill Country blues catches the imaginations of young rockers who blend it into a more contemporary mix, the essence of that sound tends to get watered down. If you look at the facts behind 2 Man Wrecking Crew, you might expect as much here. Burnside, after all, has played with progressive rockers Widespread Panic and jam-band phenoms the North Mississippi Allstars. The album was produced by David Z, whose credits include Prince, Etta James, and B.B. King.

Forget all that. This disc is a back-to-basics sampler more fundamental than many of R.L. Burnside’s recordings. Listening to it transports me back to the second stage at 2008’s Arkansas Blues and Heritage Festival, where I sat on a loading dock watching ageless hippies and dirty old men dance under the moonlight as Burnside and Malcolm cut through the crap and reduced the blues to an infectious, droning mantra.