Junior Kimbrough - You Better Run

The cotton-patch blues of the late Mississippi bluesman Junior Kimbrough are deeply disturbing. Full of exhortations of a violent and sexual nature, they speak of primal urges and human failings. Played over repetitive one-chord grooves, songs like “Release Me” echo droning, hypnotic Malian music, while “Done Got Old” has a plaintive simplicity. But nothing on this retrospective prepares for the harrowing title track, which begins as a tale of rape and ends as a love story. Mean blues, yes, but blues with meaning.