Things to do: Cedric Burnside at the Continental Club

Cedric Burnside grew up around juke joints. As blues royalty, he began playing with his grandfather RL Burnside when he was just a little boy and the sweaty Saturday night dance parties were part school, part church for the young player and a place where people could commit their sins at night before repenting.

Through the process of finding a physical space to recreate the environment of his youth, an environment that has been largely lost in modern life, Burnside was instead drawn to make his latest album. Love of the hills.

Burnside will perform in Houston on Thursday, May 9 at the Continental Club for what is sure to be a special evening of blues with Houston’s The Mighty Orq opening the show.

“It was a beautiful thing,” Burnside says of being one of her iconic grandfather’s 35 grandchildren and being able to share the stage with him at such a young age.

“I don’t think it would be appropriate in this day and age for a ten year old to be in juke joints playing music, but I’m happy and grateful to be part of the Burnside family and so grateful and I love my Grandpa for opening the door to the Burnside family.

Burnside knows his path to music and success wouldn’t have been as easy without his family’s influence, although he’s not just following in his famous grandfather’s footsteps.

Burnside is a real player with real stories to tell and has always seemed wise beyond his years, no doubt a consequence of sharing the road with so many older bluesmen and soaking up their cautionary tales while ‘they traveled the country.

“I had all this wisdom around me,” says Burnside, who says that as a teenager, his closest peer was usually 60 years old. “So I might seem a little old sometimes, but that’s the wisdom I had around.”

Before doing Love of the hills, Burnside was exploring properties to start his own juke joint when a friend suggested an old building as a possibility. “I was going to try to find a juke joint just because I miss it,” Burnside says.

“It was a big part of my life as a kid, growing up in the community that I grew up in. They loved coming every weekend and hearing this music, so I was just trying to bring it back and give people a little more. good times, like the good old days.

The building needed some work and one day while he was there, Burnside had his trusty guitar. As he sat down to play for a while, his friend and sometimes roadie Chuck, who was with him and gets a shout-out on the new album’s title track, caught his attention by saying “Dude, did you hear That ?”

Burnside recognized that there was something special within these walls and was talking to his “brother from another mother” Luther Dickinson about it when Dickinson encouraged him to drop off an album in this building and his plan shifted from juke joint at check-in.

His grit, growl, and gratitude shine through on every track, Burnside showing a little more of himself than before, adding a kind of lip-curling aggression to his playing and singing and to the trust between Burnside and Dickinson , two kids who grew up breathing the blues. , is evident in the product of their process.

“To God be the glory and that’s what I love to hear. That’s what I was looking for,” Burnside admits when discussing the final takeaway from his magnificent album.

“I always say this album has a little bit of all walks of life but I like to bring out the positive side of every situation if I can and so I just thank the lord for giving me a good head on my shoulders and making me giving the talent to go out and get my music out to people in the hopes that they can relate to it too.

Burnside has always paid homage to his roots in Hill Country blues, a style originating in northern Mississippi and known for its hauntingly repetitive groove cycles. On Love of the hills Burnside didn’t stop at just a few tracks but let the entire album shine a light on his past while showing fans the undeniable strength of his future.

“It’s just something I’ve always done, is pay homage to my big daddy RL and all the great Hill Country legends who showed me the ropes and everyone I’ve been with played and who were very close to me, Mrs. Jessie Mae Hemphill, she was a real hill legend and also Mr. Othar Turner.

Burnside shines reminiscent of the days of legendary Turner picnics where blues players and lovers came from all over the world to attend and descend.

“Oh wow, it was so fun and it was so real. When I tell you it was real, it was really, really real and people loved the experience. The very first chance I had to play the snare drum was at his picnic and so it was a big part of my life and every album I put out. I will try to pay homage to all the great legends of the hills before I leave this world.

Burnside may look like a man came out of the womb strumming and playing guitar, but he actually started out playing drums for his grandfather and only made the switch ‘at the beginning of the 2000’s.

He remembers playing a song on the guitar for his grandfather, sitting at his bedside during one of his last days, and his grandfather giving him a big thumbs up , something that RL must do from above to Love of the hills.

“I like to think that too,” he says of the otherworldly approval. “As long as I live, I will continue to write music, I will continue to put it out there. I’m not trying to be the guy that replaced my Big Daddy or one of the great Hill Country legends, but I’m here to continue this music and blaze my own trail, which I think I do pretty well. work of. I just have to thank our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and RL Burnside.

Cedric Burnside will perform with The Mighty Orq on Thursday, May 9 at the Continental Cub, 3700 Main, 8 p.m., $20-30.