page_title: R. L. Burnside
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: R. L. Burnside / Early life
caption_attribution_description: R. L. Burnside at the Crystal Ballroom in Portland, OR
context_page_description: R. L. Burnside was a blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist who lived in Holly Springs, Mississippi.
  He played music for most of his life, but did not get popular till the 1990s.
context_section_description: Burnside was born in Harmontown, Mississippi, in Lafayette County. He spent most of his life working as a sharecropper and a fisherman, as well as playing guitar at weekend house parties.
  He was first inspired to play guitar in his early twenties, after hearing John Lee Hooker play. He learned music from Mississippi Fred McDowell, who lived nearby. He was also influenced by his cousin-in-law, Muddy Waters.
  During the 1950s, Burnside moved to Chicago, Illinois to get a better job, but things did not turn out as he had hoped. Within one month, his father, brother, and uncle were all murdered in the city. He used this tragedy to help him write music. He used it mostly for his interpretation of Skip James's "Hard Time Killing Floor", "R.L.'s Story," and the opening and closing tracks on Burnside's 2000 album, Wish I Was In Heaven Sitting Down.
  Around 1959, he left Chicago and went back to Mississippi to work the farms and raise a family.
caption: Burnside playing in Portland, Oregon in January 2004
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