The combination of who they were, the unpretentious way they presented themselves, the diversity of their music, their obvious pleasure at playing, and their level of skill made them a treat to watch and hear. When that was combined with the wonderful job of capturing all that and the atmosphere of the space by the DVD's directors, it made watching Live At B.L.U.E.S almost as good as being there in person.
Jimmy Burns himself started out playing in the fifties, but when he began raising a family in the early seventies he put full-time music on hold for a while. He never stopped playing; he just wasn't pushing himself to go out on the road and gig every night. However in the mid-1990s he started up again full time and signed on with Delmark Records.
Since then he's been playing regularly and he doesn't seem to have skipped a beat for taking the time off. I was watching and listening to him play guitar and trying to figure out who he reminded me of. It took only a song or two for me realize that it wasn't who he reminded me of that made him sound familiar, it was that he was effortlessly doing all those things that people worship Eric Clapton for attempting.
In fact both Jimmy Burns and his guitar player Tony Palmer are casually better players then almost any other rock or blues guitar player I've seen or heard in a long time. Not only do they not go in for the usual bullshit that you see from rock guitarists, or try to play so fast that you can't hear a note they are playing, they play solos on parts of the guitar neck most guitar players seem to have forgotten existed.
There is more genuine emotion to be heard in a solo played back up towards the pegs than you could believe possible. After listening to the first couple solos by each man I was left wondering why the hell anyone could get excited by some guy bending notes over and over again down by his pickups where it just becomes so much noise after a while.
Article comments