AllMovie

R.L. Burnside was one of the last great men of the Mississippi hill country blues tradition. Burnside was a singer and guitarist whose music was raw, spare and hypnotic, but also full of energy and groove, and he'd been playing raucous, dance floor-filling shows at Mississippi juke joints and road houses for years before he was discovered by blues devotees and underground rock fans in the 1990s. While best known for his electric music, Burnside was a capable acoustic guitarist as well, and recorded a handful of early sessions devoted to country blues in the traditional style. Swingmaster Records, a jazz and blues specialists label based in the Netherlands, released some early recordings by Burnside and arranged for him to tour Europe; during his visits there, he played informal acoustic concerts at Swingmaster's retail shop which were videotaped for later broadcast. R.L. Burnside with Johnny Woods: Live 1984/1986 features two acoustic shows from Burnside: a solo set recorded in 1986, and a duo performance with singer and harmonica player Johnny Woods taped in 1984.