Grammy Winner Gives A Bluesy Tour Through The Hill Country

The Mississippi Hills National Heritage Area is a unique region that was designated by Congress in 2009 and has played a major role in America’s history and culture.

The Northeast Mississippi region, bounded by Interstate 55 to the west and Highway 14 to the south, intermingles Appalachian and Delta cultures, was instrumental in the Civil Rights Movement and was the home of Elvis Presley, William Faulkner and Tennessee Williams. It also is the home to the Mississippi Blues Trail, where travelers can follow markers to learn about an underpublicized form of music known as Hill Country blues.

Bluesman Cedric Burnside, who released a new album, Hill Country Love, this month, lives in Ashland, about 18 miles east of Holly Springs, which is about an hour drive southeast of Memphis, Tennessee. Most of Burnside’s life was spent in Tullahoma, a little Mississippi Hill Country town outside Holly Springs, so he is well-suited to lead visitors to the region’s treasures.

Burnside’s 2022 album I Be Trying won a Grammy, and his grandfather R.L. Burnside was a renowned Hill Country blues slide guitarist and singer who learned to play from his neighbor, country blues legend Mississippi Fred McDowell.

Cedric Burnside says visitors should go to the place in Chulahoma (about 15 miles southwest of Holly Springs) where Junior Kimbrough’s juke joint once stood. Kimbrough, a member of the Blues Hall of Fame, ran the juke joint in the 1990s to keep alive the dirty blues of McDowell, Howlin’ Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson and others. The shack burned down in 2000.

“Go by there just to feel the energy of that place,” says the 42-year-old Burnside. “And anyone who knew of or met my (grand) daddy should go by his gravesite and feel his energy as well. His gravesite is close by Junior’s gravesite.”

Visitors interested in experiencing “authentic Hill Country blues and good home-cooked food” should go to the Foxfire Ranch in Waterford, Burnside says. The 80-acre ranch includes a 5,000 square-foot open-air pavilion, an indoor banquet hall, multiple stages and four cabins.

The ranch’s website describes the vibe: “Musicians love to play here with blue skies as their backdrop. Families joyfully gather here for reunions, quinceañeras and to publicly declare their commitments of love to each other. Children run freely, finding wonder nestled in the arms of whispering pines and restful oak trees. This is a place where cell phones slow down, the internet is a little finicky, the food feeds your soul and your body remembers.”

Burnside says the blues trail markers in various towns explain the significance of local blues artists and their contributions to their communities. A few more markers for R.L. Burnside and Kimbrough were recently placed in Holly Springs. In Ashland, Burnside recommends visiting the marker “in the square by the courthouse” for Royal Studio owner Boo Mitchell. His dad, Willie Mitchell, produced Al Green’s hits and was instrumental in redefining Memphis rhythm and blues.

According to the Mississippi Blues Commission, the markers “tell stories through words and images of bluesmen and women and how the places where they lived and the times in which they existed — and continue to exist — influenced their music. The sites run the gamut from city streets to cotton fields, train depots to cemeteries and clubs to churches.”

The Mississippi Hills National Heritage Area includes 19 counties and portions of 11 others.

“The Hill Country is just what it says — the hills of Mississippi,” Cedric Burnside explains. “The Delta is the flatland lower down, and Hill Country is more in the north. Holly Springs is really hilly, and Ashland is almost mountains. Senatobia is part of the Hill Country, where Mississippi Fred McDowell and (blues musicians) Othar Turner and Jessie Mae Hemphill are from. Another great Hill Country blues legend, R.L. Boyce, is from Como.”

The Mississippi Blues Commission says “Delta blues often claims the spotlight,” but “other styles of the blues were produced in other regions of Mississippi. In the greater Holly Springs area, musicians developed a Hill Country blues style characterized by few chord changes, unconventional song structures and an emphasis on the groove or a steady, driving rhythm.”

Hill Country blues is so meaningful to the region, “because it’s unique,” Burnside says. “It’s just different from any other blues you hear. For a long time, Hill Country blues wasn’t on the scene and didn’t get recognition until the 1990s through my big daddy R.L. and Junior Kimbrough. The unorthodox rhythms of this music is something people had to get used to.”

The Hill Country blues rhythms undoubtedly won over the judges when Burnside’s I Be Trying album won a Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Album. The 13-track album included 11 songs written by Burnside and songs written by his grandfather and Kimbrough.

“To be the first from the Hill Country area to bring a Grammy home fills me with gratitude,” Burnside says. “All the Hill Country legends, including those I played with, should’ve won a Grammy — should’ve won several – but they didn’t. So, I won that Grammy not just for myself but for them and this region.”