Junior Kimbrough is the blues. He snuck out his father’s guitar and mastered it while he was too young to be working the fields. His mother once caught him in a moonshine-induced coma when he was just six. He was a born star, huh? Nope…
Junior didn’t release his first LP, All Night Long, until he was 67 years old – just five years before his death. Instead, he worked for a tractor and farm equipment maker, and occasionally performed standards on weekends in his house. As things travel, Rolling Stone took notice immediately of All Night Long, and eventually Junior’s house became Junior’s Club, where he and fellow musicians hosted iconic modern pilgrims like the Sonic Youth, U2, and the Stones.
On this tribute, more modern day icons of blues heavy progress give their best Junior, and do a damned fine job of it. Outstanding offerings come from the Stooges, Heartless Bastards, Black Keys, Pete Yorn, The Firey Furnaces, Mark Lanegan, Whitey Kirst, and Jack Oblivion. Almost every track on this beast is a winner; but then take a look at the influence behind it and that’s no real surprise.
