Biography

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Jimmy Burns – Live At B.L.U.E.S.
Delmark DE 789 (2007)
Compact Disc – Also available on DVD!

Born in Dublin, Mississippi in 1943, Jimmy Burns derived his earliest inspiration from the records of Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and others. After Jimmy moved to Chicago in the mid-’50s, he discovered a scene that was perfect for the meld of traditional blues, churchy emotionalism, and forward-looking pop/R&B sophistication that by then comprised his musical aesthetic. Live at B.L.U.E.S. captures perfectly the indelible combination of ebullient good spirits, warmhearted intimacy, and sharp-witted intelligence that characterizes Jimmy Burns, as both a musician and a man.

Also available: Leaving Here Walking (Delmark 694), Night Time Again (Delmark 730) and Back To The Delta (Delmark 770).

1. Leaving Here Walking 6:09
2. No Consideration 6:30
3. Miss Annie Lou 7:12
4. Can't Hold Out Much Longer 6:20
5. Intro 0:43
6. Better Know What You're Doing 6:45
7. Whole Lot Of Lovin' 6:31
8. Intro 0:55
9. Three O'Clock Blues 5:24
10. Country Boy In The City 7:04
11. Wild About You, Baby 4:41
12. Stop The Train 6:43

Jimmy Burns, vocals, guitar, harmonica
Tony Palmer, guitar
Greg McDaniel, bass
James Carter, drums
Jesse Fortune, vocal on Three O'Clock Blues

Recorded at 24bit/96kHz High Resolution Audio live on
August 13, 2006 at B.L.U.E.S. on Halsted, Chicago

All songs by Jimmy Burns, Velrone Publishing, BMI except
4 by Walter Jacobs, Arc Music Corp., BMI,
7 by King/Bihari, Careers BMG Music Publ., BMI,
9 by King/Taub, Careers BMG Music Publ., BMI,
11 by Elmore James, Arc Music Corp., BMI.

Also available on DVD (Delmark DVD 1789)


Album Production and Supervision: Robert G. Koester and Steve Wagner
Recorded, mixed and mastered by Steve Wagner, Eric Butkus and Dave Katzman
Mixed and mastered at Riverside Studio, Chicago
Photos: Jennifer Wheeler
Design: ForDzine, Dave Forte
Special thanks to Rob Hecko, Jennifer Littleton and the entire B.L.U.E.S. family.


The African-American Great Migration of the early and mid 20th Century is
usually credited with bringing the blues to Chicago from the cotton fields
of the South. Even on its own terms, of course, that generalization leaves
out a lot: there were several important stops between the Delta and the
Windy City (Memphis and St. Louis being only two of the most significant);
furthermore, a lot of Southern blues artists had spent most of their lives
in towns and cities before they migrated; not all of them made the trip
north with Delta soil under their fingernails.

But perhaps the most important detail the "Delta-to-Chicago" blues cliché
omits is the varied nature of the music the new arrivals brought with them.
From the beginning, African-American gospel singers, jazzers, pop crooners,
and even country music aficionados rode trains, drove cars, and hitched
rides up Highway 61 alongside blues guitarists and harp players. By the
mid-’50s, a lot of the younger migrants were immersed in R&B, doo-****, and
the nascent rock & roll of the era as well. As they poured into Chicago's
South and West Sides, they made the city far more than merely a blues
stronghold: it became a vibrant cultural swap meet of almost endless
variety, a place where artists representing different generations and genres
interacted and created new sounds out of the living traditions and
contemporary influences they shared.

Jimmy Burns' career exemplifies the interweaving of styles and aesthetic
sensibilities that defined African-American popular music of that era. Born
into a farming family in Dublin, Mississippi in 1943, he derived his
earliest inspiration from the records of blues artists like Muddy Waters and
John Lee Hooker (a close associate of Burns' older brother,
guitarist/harpist Eddie Burns, who had moved to Detroit by then and was
already sharing recording studios and bandstands with Hooker). Young Jimmy
experimented with music by nailing a single string upside a wall and
plucking it -- the classic downhome bluesman's beginning.

But he actually began to play guitar in church (the first song he ever
played was the venerable spiritual "You Got To Move"), and he did most of his
singing there, as well. In addition, he listened to and absorbed the music
of suave balladeers such as Nat "King" Cole and houserocking R&B good-timers
like Louis Jordan and Nappy Brown, all of whom were on the airwaves and in
the jukeboxes. After Jimmy moved to Chicago in the mid-’50s he discovered a
scene that was perfect for the meld of traditional blues, churchy
emotionalism, and forward-looking pop/R&B sophistication that by then
comprised his musical aesthetic.

At that time doo-**** was also ascendant, both in the charts and on the
streets. Although the doo-woppers prided themselves on the newness of their
sound and the urbanity of their professional personas, in many ways they
weren't terribly different from the blues musicians who had preceded them.
Like their blues forbearers they fashioned richly textured music from the
cadences, melodies, and themes of their world: gospel harmonies, street
vendors‚ calls, the romantic blandishments of pop singers, and (though some
may have been loath to admit it) the charged sensuality and sly irony of
bluesmen and songsters.

Ever the eclectic, Jimmy Burns eagerly embraced this new musical
opportunity. He made his first recording, on the Alan label, when he was
sixteen years old, as a member of a vocal group called the Medallionaires.
Characteristically, the Medallionaires didn't limit themselves to doo-****;
they backed up bluesman Jimmie Lee Robinson for some sessions on Bandera,
and they peformed at local nightclubs and at record hops on shows with stars
as diverse as Dee Clark, Brenda Lee, Clarence "Frogman" Henry, Count Basie,
and even Anita Bryant.

Within a few years Jmmy expanded his territory even farther. On the North
Side of Chicago in the early ’60s a hip folk scene was coming into bloom;
Jimmy's well-tempered, gritty-sweet vocal style was perfect for the urbane
kind of traditionalism Josh White had pioneered and which was now being
re-popularized by folk-oriented artists like Odetta, Harry Belafonte, and
the young Richie Havens. He became a mainstay at clubs like the Fickle
Pickle and the Gate of Horn, venues that also featured performances by
"rediscovered" blues elders such as the still-potent Big Joe Williams.

But when it came time for him to record under his own name, Jimmy jumped
genres yet again. His ’60s-’70s output on Chicago-based labels such as USA,
Tip Top, Dispo, and Erica, was mostly in an ebullient, pop-tinged soul vein.
He toured both locally and around the Midwest, promoting these disks at
record hops and concerts. He found, however, that it was impossible to
support a family this way; although he never gave up music entirely, he
began to relegate it increasingly to a part-time hobby as the ’70s progressed.

Jimmy had never abandoned his early love for straight-ahead blues, and in the late ’70s he formed a rugged little blues band anchored by drummer Larry Taylor, son of the legendary guitarist Eddie Taylor and one of Jimmy's
nephews. They gigged around the West Side; eventually they began to secure
jobs on the expanding, predominantly white, North Side scene as well. The
new generation of blues fans there were a lot less purist in their attitudes
than some of their elders had been; they encouraged Jimmy to slip
sweet-toned doo-****, funky soul, and ebullient pop stylings into his sets
along with down-and-dirty Chicago shuffles. Armed with a diverse repertoire
and possessed of an amiable onstage demeanor buttressed by the solid
professionalism he'd honed over the years, Jimmy soon found himself one of
Chicago's most in-demand "newer" bluesmen. When he finally signed with
Delmark in the mid-’90s, he was primed and ready to take his place as a
leading recording artist on the contemporary blues scene. Like his fellow
Delmark artist Jesse Fortune, he now found himself a "newly discovered"
bluesman after having been active on Chicago's blues, soul and R&B scenes for over forty years. A conscientious artist who enters the studio only when he has
prepared sufficient material and honed it to meet his exacting standards, he
has remained with Delmark ever since.

The disk you're holding represents a further closing of the circle for
Jimmy -- just as he returned to the music of his youth when he began playing
the blues again in the late ’70s, he now gets to showcase what's always been
one of his strongest suits: the powerful, emotionally resonant connection he
makes with an audience when he performs live. Recorded at one of Chicago's
most beloved blues venues, it captures perfectly the indelible combination
of ebullient good spirits, warm-hearted intimacy, and sharp-witted
intelligence that characterizes Jimmy Burns, as both a musician and a man.
Between the musicianship on display and the obvious enthusiasm of the packed
house that was there to cheer Jimmy on, this recording proclaims the blues
-as well as one of its most stalwart and dedicated exponents- to be healthy
and alive, both solidly rooted and eager to move into the future.

Don't "Stop That Train" - climb aboard! The party has just begun!

Special thanks to Steve Sharp, whose article "Jimmy Burns: I'm Back In
Music To Stay" (LIVING BLUES, March-April 2001) was a major source of
background information for these notes.


David Whiteis is a Chicago freelance writer. His book CHICAGO BLUES:
PORTRAITS AND STORIES was published in 2006 by University of Illinois Press.

Other Delmark albums of interest:
Jimmy Burns, Back To The Delta (770)
Night Time Again (730)
Leaving Here Walking (694)
Blues Before Sunrise, Volume One (699) Live at B.L.U.E.S.
with Jimmy Burns, Billy Boy Arnold, John Brim
Delmark Records: 50 Years of Jazz and Blues • BLUES (905)
With Jimmy Burns, Junior Wells, Magic Sam…
Blues From Up The Country (907) with Jimmy Burns,
Big Joe Williams, Sleepy John Estes…
Eddie Burns, Snake Eyes (758) with Jimmy Burns
Jesse Fortune, Fortune Tellin' Man (658) with Dave Specter

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Chicago, IL 60618
www.delmark.com
CP 2007 Delmark Records