In this video, Cedric talks with Sid about his life growing up on a farm, how he approaches music as a songwriter, and why he’ll never leave Mississippi. Plus, he talks about his new album, Hill Country Love (out 4/5/24), which is infused with his own unique spin on the sound that his grandfather helped define.
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00:00Welcome to Biscuits and Jam from Southern Living. I'm your host, Sid Evans, and today I'm talking
00:08with a blues guitarist and songwriter whose roots run deep in the Mississippi Hill Country.
00:13Cedric Burnside is the grandson of the famous blues man R.L. Burnside, and he's also a Grammy
00:19award-winning artist who's taking the genre into new territory. He started playing the drums when
00:25he was still in grade school, and by the age of 13 he was playing juke joints and traveling the
00:30country with his grandfather, whom he referred to as Big Daddy. Now Burnside has a new album called
00:36Hill Country Love, his unique spin on the Mississippi sound that his grandfather helped define. We'll talk
00:43about all that, his grandmother's biscuits, and how he's introducing the blues to a new generation,
00:48all on this week's Biscuits and Jam.
00:55Cedric Burnside, welcome to Biscuits and Jam.
01:01Thanks for having me, man. Good to be here.
01:04Great to see you. Where am I reaching you right now?
01:08Well, I'm actually in Hollis Springs, Mississippi. I'm at Russ College Library.
01:12Great. So close to home.
01:14Very close to home.
01:15Yeah. Well, Cedric, I've got to start out by just saying congrats on the new album. It's called
01:21Hill Country Love.
01:23And it's a collection of 14 terrific songs. And I've got to say, there's one thing that stood out
01:29to me, and that is in the credits, it says that it was recorded in an old building in Ripley,
01:36Mississippi.
01:37Mm-hmm. Yes.
01:38So tell me about that.
01:39Well, I spent a lot of time in Ripley. A really good friend of mine is named Chuck Duncan. He's from
01:44Ripley. And so I go there to see him and we was looking at a building I was going to make my juke
01:50joint out of. And it was an old lawyer's office, well, lawyer's building. And it was one of the
01:57oldest buildings in town. It was like 150 years old. Me and the landlord couldn't really get things
02:03going. So I'm going to have to find another spot. But I did get a chance to record there.
02:08It had a great acoustic sound in it and everything. And so one weekend, I come home off a tour.
02:16I was on tour with my good buddy, Luther Dickinson and Coda Dickinson. I was telling him I was ready
02:21to record another album. And he was like, how soon? And I told him, I said, well, man, pretty soon.
02:28I think I need to write about six more songs and then I'll be ready. And he say, well, when we get
02:34off this tour, man, I'll bring the studio down and we can do it. I was like, really? He was like,
02:40yeah. So when we got off the tour, man, I finished writing those songs and I called Luther. I said,
02:46I'm ready. And about three days after we made it home, he brought the studio in and we went in to
02:52record. Two days we was done. That's great. That sounds like it was meant to be.
02:56Oh, yeah. I think it was. The universe was working with us.
03:01Well, and I love hearing that you're interested in maybe starting your own
03:05juke joint someday. Oh, yeah, man. That's been a part of my life,
03:08my whole life. I grew up in the juke joints. I got my start there with my big daddy at the
03:14juke joints and the house parties, of course. I miss that. There's not very many juke joints
03:19around the North Mississippi area these days. So I want to kind of bring that back, you know?
03:26Yeah. Well, that's great to hear. And I hope you'll keep us posted when you get one up and
03:30running, okay? Oh, definitely.
03:34Well, Cedric, tell me about the hill country a little bit. When you talk about the hill country,
03:40and I'm from Memphis, by the way, so I know this part of the world. But where would you point on a
03:46map when you're talking about the hill country? What part of Mississippi are we talking about?
03:52Is it kind of a collection of a number of counties up there? What kind of defines it?
03:57Yeah. Well, mainly where I grew up at is the Northeast part of Mississippi. And that would
04:03be around the Marshall County area, Bend County area. Hollywood Springs would definitely be one of
04:09the main hill country spots. Olive Branch, Bahia, Tupelo will be the hill country area, you know? So
04:17around about the Northeast part of Mississippi is where I'm at. And that's where the music is
04:25quite different. You know, it's quite different from even two hours away is the Delta, which would
04:31be Clarksdale. And the music there is great. They use the 145. Memphis is an hour away. And the music
04:40that we play versus the music that you hear in Memphis is quite different. The hill country blues
04:45is its own thing. It's not like any other blues that you will hear. And my big daddy, he gave me my
04:53chance to get out there and start my career along with the good Lord, of course. And so when you hear
05:01his music, it's very unique. Just like Junior Kimbrough, if you hear his music is very distinct,
05:08it's very unique. It don't sound like anybody else. You know, I hear the same thing about my music these
05:14days, you know? But I just really thank the Lord and big daddy for giving me a chance to do my thing.
05:22Well, Cedric, talk to me about Holly Springs a little bit. I mean, this is where you grew up,
05:26you know, kind of just down the road from Memphis. And when you think about the home where you grew up,
05:33what comes to mind? I mean, what did it look like when you were driving in the driveway?
05:37Well, that's a great question, Sid. I grew up in the sharecropping times when my big daddy was a
05:43sharecropper. So our house wasn't very big at all. It was a four-room house. And when I said four
05:50rooms, it only had four rooms. And two of those rooms, we had to make bedrooms out of, you know?
05:57And one was the kitchen and one was the living room. Under the circumstances that I grew up in,
06:03I did not know that, you know, we was poor, you know? Even though anybody could have saw it,
06:10I guess we was just so used to it as kids. We didn't know that we grew up poor, you know?
06:16And I think the music helped a lot with that because my big daddy did house parties every
06:22other weekend, you know, to try to make ends meet. He would get off the tractor at night and come home.
06:27He would be dusty and dirty and everything, man. But he would prepare the party for people that's
06:34going to come to listen to the music. So that's kind of how it was as a kid, you know, five or six
06:41years old. When you pull in the driveway, you see a few chickens, you see a few hogs. And that was just
06:48about it in an old shack house. And how many of y'all were in that house, Cedric? I'm going to say at
06:53least 20. Wow. That I can remember. At least 20 people, maybe a couple more, you know, give or take a
07:00few. But my mom was staying there and her kids was there. And I had a few uncles that were staying
07:07there and their kids was there. You know, my big daddy and my big mama was there. So yeah, it was
07:13quite a few of us. So tell me a little bit about your mom and, you know, how she managed all that.
07:22That's a lot of mouths to feed. That's a lot of activity. How did she handle all that?
07:27Wow. Well, my big mama, man, she was a superwoman.
07:32And this is your grandmother you're talking about.
07:34Yeah. Yeah. She was a superwoman. She would do whatever it took to get up in the a.m. and
07:40make breakfast for everybody. And when I say make breakfast for everybody, she would get up about
07:47four o'clock a.m. and she would start making biscuits and she would make about three panes of
07:53biscuits, 30, 40 biscuits. She would make salmon patties, salmon croquets for everybody. And when
07:59I say she had to make a lot, I mean, she had to make a lot, man. Yeah. Every morning she would get
08:06up and she would just do what she had to do. I always called my big mama a superwoman, you know,
08:11and she was just that. And what was her name? Alice May Burnside. Yep. Alice May. I used to get up
08:21some mornings with her when she would cook and I would sit there and watch her and I would just be
08:28in amazement. Also, I couldn't wait till that food get done either because I always was ready for one of
08:34those biscuits. But I happened to learn a lot from her in the kitchen. I'm no stranger to the kitchen
08:41myself. I see myself in there a lot these days, making those biscuits and whipping up that corn
08:46bread like she used to do it, you know? So it was a lesson learned in all of that.
08:51You have some of those recipes or at least you have them in your head?
08:55I do. I have them in my head. I have nothing written down. All in my head.
08:59And Cedric, tell me about your mom. I mean, you grew up going to these juke joints and you start
09:08playing drums when you're really young and you're going out to some places that most kids don't ever
09:14see until they're a whole lot older. How did your mom get on board with all that?
09:22She did not like it at all at first, you know, but my big daddy kind of talked into it. He told her
09:28that he was going to take care of me and she believed that he would do that. And of course
09:32he did, but that didn't stop her from not liking it. She still did not like it at all. But like I
09:39said, we grew up in the sharecropping era and we didn't have much money. So when I did get the chance
09:45to travel with my big daddy, I made a little money and I had a younger brother. Unfortunately,
09:52he passed in 2012 and I got a younger sister. She's still living. Her name is Sonia and my brother
09:59name was Cody. Due to my dad not being around as much when I was young, when we was young,
10:07that was another way for me to make a little money and bring income into the house. And my mom was happy
10:13for that. Even though she didn't feel so hot with me going out of town, she was happy that we was able
10:20to pay bills and kind of live. I was able to buy shoes and socks and stuff for my sister and my
10:28brother for school. So that kind of helped her change the mind a little bit when she knew that
10:33I was going to make a little money, you know, and not just going out there to go out there.
10:38Yeah. Yeah. And your grandfather, did he kind of watch out for you at these places or was he too
10:46focused on the music? I mean, he must've had a lot going on. He did, but he did keep an eye on me.
10:52Every venue I went to, he made sure that I had a ribbon on my wrist so they wouldn't give me
10:57anything to drink, which I wasn't drinking as a teenager myself. Anyways, I guess when I got about
11:0317, 18, I did partake a few times. I'm sure. Yeah. But yeah, he really kept an eye on me.
11:11And for that first couple of years, I slept in the same hotel room with him every night for a
11:16couple of years. And then eventually I started getting my own hotel room.
11:22I mean, that's pretty amazing, Cedric, when you think about it. Most people just don't get that
11:27kind of relationship with a grandfather. Yeah.
11:31You know, not only to be able to play music with him and to be on the road with him, but to
11:36stay in a hotel and just spend all that quality time is pretty unique.
11:43You know, Ced, you just brought back a bunch of memories. Just sitting there with my big dad a lot
11:50of times and watching him pull out his guitar in the AM and practice a little bit before we hit the
11:57road again. I used to sit and watch him and it would remind me of home when I was a little kid.
12:03That always brings tears to my eyes because I miss that. Even now today, I miss that. I think about
12:10that a lot, you know, even on the stage. I think about him a lot, you know.
12:16What was it about him that made his music so special and made it stand out? I mean,
12:24there's a lot of blues musicians in that part of the world. And there are a lot of really good ones
12:31who never became anywhere near as famous as your grandfather did. I mean, was it his voice?
12:38Was it his songwriting? Was it his charisma? Was it his guitar playing? You know, what was it that
12:46kind of made him really stand out as a blues musician?
12:50I think it was a little bit of all of it. I think it was his guitar playing and definitely
12:56his voice. Both was unique and amazing. But I would definitely have to say, not that the other
13:03musicians wasn't real, but my big daddy was just one of the realest old cats that I knew. He would
13:10give you the shirt off his back, literally. I remember us getting in the van and just riding
13:16into town and it would be guys that he didn't even know. He would buy them something to eat.
13:22He would take them around and give them a few clothes to wear. And those guys would end up
13:27coming to our house. They'd be there for two or three months and they become family. It was a little
13:34bit of all of that, but mostly it was his realness and his love and compassion just for people. And it
13:41wasn't all about the music, even though he loved his music. He cared more about helping people than
13:47he really just cared about playing his music. So I think it was more of that.
13:52So that was a big part of his success in life, just the way he interacted with people and people
13:57wanted to help him and people wanted to be around him.
14:00Oh yeah, exactly. Exactly, man.
14:03Yeah.
14:03And I was one of those people. I find myself doing a lot of the things that he would do these days as
14:10well. And that's a big passion of mine is helping people, making sure people is fed and making sure
14:17people are covered and not be cold. And I got all of that from Big Daddy, just watching him do his
14:25thing in the earth before he passed. Was he a religious person? I've seen you reference your
14:34faith and I've seen it come through in your music and it's in your songs. And I've heard you talk about
14:40it. Is that something that was a part of his life or is that something that is just more of your
14:45personal thing?
14:46Not at all. He was not religious at all. He do love God, but he was not a religious guy.
14:55I love God and I love Jesus, but when it comes to just making a religion out of the whole thing,
15:02you know, I just want to be a Christ being, I don't want nothing to do with any kind of religion,
15:07you know? But no, my Big Daddy never cared about what people thought of their God or if they was a
15:13Muslim, if they was Buddha, he never cared about none of that. You know, he just wanted to love people
15:20and play his music, you know, and do what he can for people in the earth. That's all he really cared
15:25about. You know, he passed away now a long time ago. It was, I think, 2005, you said.
15:332005, correct.
15:34So that's, you know, coming up on 20 years ago. So he never really got to see a lot of your success.
15:41I mean, the albums, the Grammy Award. What do you think he would have said about all this?
15:47Hmm. Wow. I have no doubt that he would have been proud. I have no doubt he would have been proud.
15:54He would have been mostly proud of me for not quitting, Sid, because it was times where
15:59things got hard and I did want to just let everything go and just quit, you know, and especially
16:07after he passed. And so I just thank the Lord and Big Daddy for instilling in me to keep on going
16:15and don't let nothing stop me. And that's what I did. And here we go.
16:20Here we go. Indeed. I mean, look at what you've done. It's really something.
16:25Yep.
16:27After the break, I'll talk more with Cedric Burnside about his new album, Hill Country Love,
16:32and how he's sharing his love of music with his daughters.
16:35I'm Cedric Burnside, and this is my Southern Living Jam Session.
16:50Biscuits or cornbread?
16:51Cornbread.
16:53Okay. Sweet or unsweet?
16:55Sweet.
16:57A good Southern guy right there, yeah. Acoustic or electric?
17:01Acoustic.
17:02Memphis or Nashville?
17:05Memphis.
17:06That's an easy one.
17:09All right. Fried okra or fried dill pickles?
17:13Fried okra.
17:14Oh. The best catfish place in Mississippi is blank.
17:19Uh, I'm trying to think of it. Oh, man. I cannot think of it. Foxfire Ranch.
17:34Okay. Where's that?
17:37It's in Waterford, Mississippi.
17:38Okay. Foxfire Ranch. We got to look that one up.
17:41Yep.
17:42All right. The best barbecue place in the world is blank.
17:45My Grill.
17:47Where's that?
17:47Ashton, Mississippi.
17:49Okay.
17:50The dish I'm known for cooking is blank.
17:54Pinto beans.
17:55The best dog I ever owned was named blank.
17:59King.
18:01My all-time favorite juke joint to play in is blank.
18:06Junior Kimbrough's juke joint.
18:09And the most Southern thing about me is blank.
18:12Chopping wood.
18:13I like it.
18:18Well, I want to talk about the new album.
18:20It's called Hill Country Love.
18:22And there's a lot of great music on here.
18:26This is coming out after you won a Grammy for your last album, I Be Trying, which has to have been a huge moment for you.
18:34I mean, does that put some extra pressure on you for this one?
18:37It does not, Sid.
18:40And I can tell you why.
18:42Because it's what I do.
18:43I feel like I am music.
18:46You know, I have so much music inside of me and I can barely get all of it out.
18:52And if I'm going to be honest with you, I have to say this.
18:57I actually wrote this album the end of 2021 before I won the Grammy.
19:04Oh, really?
19:05It just took a while for it to get out.
19:08And I'm just actually glad that it's finally coming out.
19:12But yeah, most people wouldn't believe it.
19:13I wrote this album before I won the Grammy in 2022.
19:18I wrote this album at the end of 2021.
19:20Oh, well, it sounds like a natural evolution to me.
19:26Well, thank you.
19:28Thank you very much.
19:30It really does.
19:31And like I said, there's just so many great songs on here.
19:34I want to ask you about the title track, Hill Country Love.
19:39So it has this kind of driving beat to it.
19:43And as someone who started as a drummer and who is still a drummer, I'm wondering if you think of these songs sometimes as a drummer first.
19:54Do you kind of start with that beat in your head?
19:58Well, you know, I really used to think of all my music as drums first because that's how I would write them before I started playing guitar.
20:06Guitar is definitely my newfound love, but it's a different rhythm.
20:10It's a different beat in my head all at the same time.
20:13So I find myself coming up with the riff sometimes or either I find myself coming up with the words first.
20:22And the drums, they come later.
20:24And with all these songs that I wrote on Hill Country Love, I actually came up with the words and the music first.
20:33And then I went back and tried to put the beats to them on the drums.
20:39And then I would show the drummer how I wanted it, how it sounded in my head.
20:44Well, I'm sure you have some very specific ideas about how you want those drums to sound.
20:51Oh, yes, man.
20:52I used to see the drummer sometimes when I play a beat and there's like, but that's weird.
20:59I like, I know it's weird.
21:01Look, I get it.
21:02I know it's weird.
21:03But this is the beat.
21:04That's what I want.
21:07Yeah, you're absolutely right.
21:10Ten hours to the next show.
21:15I can't wait.
21:17Let's go.
21:19Let's pull it up.
21:22There's another song on this album that really stood out for me and it's called Strong.
21:49And it's very short, but it kind of stays in your head and it's different than everything else on the record.
21:57And I was just wondering what that song means to you and how it came together.
22:01When I wrote that song, Strong, I was thinking about hard times that people have in life and things that you can go through.
22:10Just sort of what I was talking about a while ago, going through those hard times, it makes you want to stop, makes you want to quit.
22:16But you have to keep on going.
22:18You have to be strong and keep pushing because great, great stuff is on the other side.
22:24Yeah.
22:25And the words kind of speak for itself.
22:27You know, you have to take the good with the bad.
22:30And once you learn to do that, you'll come out good.
22:32And it kind of speaks to your own journey, too.
22:35Exactly.
22:37Oh, yeah.
22:38Yeah.
22:39Well, I want to ask you about one more and we could talk about every single one, Cedric.
22:43But it's the last song on the record and it's Poor Black Maddie.
22:48Oh, yeah.
22:49And this is kind of a tribute to your grandfather.
22:53I mean, this is a song that he was known for.
22:56And I'm just wondering what it kind of brings to mind for you.
23:00I mean, you must have a lot of memories, I would think, of playing this song with him.
23:05But is that the case or where did it come from?
23:08Oh, wow.
23:09Ced, I done played that song.
23:10Well, I can't even count how many times I done played that song with my big daddy.
23:14No matter what album I put out, I always try to put a song or two on the album of my big daddy.
23:20Just to let people know where I got it from and where I come from, you know.
23:24So I always try to do a tribute to him or to Junior and everybody that I can that I grew up around.
23:33And I think my next album, I'm going to do a tribute on Mr. Other.
23:37You know, Mr. Other and...
23:38Other Turner.
23:39Other Turner.
23:40Other Turner, exactly.
23:41And then I'm going to try to do one for Miss Jessamie Hipfield.
23:45So those are all the cats that I grew up around, you know.
23:49I did another acoustic song on there for Mississippi Fred McDowell.
23:53Big daddy used to do that song also, You Gotta Move.
23:56I also love the way he do it, but I also love the way Mississippi Fred McDowell do it.
24:02So that was kind of a tribute toward the both of them.
24:05You could do a whole album of those tributes, couldn't you?
24:07Oh, yes.
24:09Oh, yes, man.
24:10Without a doubt.
24:12Without a doubt.
24:14Well, I want to ask you about The Next Generation.
24:17On your last album, you recorded a song with your daughter.
24:21Yes.
24:22Do you see her as someone who's going to kind of continue the Burnside legacy?
24:27Is she still interested in music?
24:29Is that something that you hope that she'll keep going?
24:31Oh, yeah, of course.
24:33She definitely loves music, and she's definitely still interested.
24:37I got four daughters now.
24:38I just had my last daughter, 2022, and her name is Anna.
24:44And I see her right now, man.
24:47She's one and a half.
24:48She go over and she be slapping on the guitar, and she be playing on the piano.
24:53So I know that some music is coming out of that little girl right there.
24:57But she's going to be a musician for sure.
25:01But yeah, I want to leave this legacy where my kids, if they want to play music, I want
25:08them to play.
25:10But it don't even have to be my kids.
25:12It can be the other little young kids around the community.
25:17If they want to play, I'm open to show them whatever I know.
25:20Drums, guitar, it doesn't even matter.
25:24Because I think that music is very important, no matter what genre it is.
25:29As long as it's talking some good stuff about life and how life is, I think it's very important
25:34to keep music going on this earth.
25:37People need music all over the world, man.
25:40And so, yeah, I'm looking forward to just showing the next generation everything I know,
25:47starting with my daughters.
25:48Well, you're off to a good start.
25:54Well, Cedric, I just have one more question for you.
25:57What does it mean to you to be Southern?
25:59Oh, wow.
26:00Well, I can definitely tell you I'm glad to be a country boy.
26:04I'm glad to be a country guy.
26:06Growing up in the country and watching my big daddy share crop, not that those was great
26:12times, but I find myself with a tractor these days.
26:16I find myself doing a garden just about every other year, if not every year.
26:23So the things that I saw my big daddy do, I still do to this day.
26:27And being from Mississippi, I done got asked this question so many times.
26:32Man, why are you still staying in Mississippi?
26:34You could go anywhere in the world.
26:37Yeah, I could.
26:39And I done been to some of the most beautiful places in the world, but nothing makes me want
26:44to leave Mississippi.
26:45I love Mississippi.
26:47And I love everything about country living.
26:50Well, I love hearing that.
26:53And I'm thrilled for you with the new album.
26:56It's a great album.
26:57And I know you must be really excited to get it out in the world and share it with everybody.
27:01Yes, I am.
27:02And Cedric Burnside, thanks so much for being on Biscuits and Jam.
27:07See it.
27:07Thanks so much for having me, man.
27:09Thanks for listening to my conversation with Cedric Burnside.
27:15Southern Living is based in Birmingham, Alabama.
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27:36I hope you'll join me next week when I'll be talking with the musician, actress, and now the host of Farmer Wants a Wife, Jennifer Nettles.
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