R.L. Burnside

Farming cotton, hauling fish from the Tallahatchie River and driving trucks paid the bills well into the 1980s, with music squeezed in at juke joints and house parties. Guitar came largely from his neighbour Mississippi Fred McDowell, while church singing and fife-and-drum picnics shaped his ear. With his family band, the Sound Machine, he mixed hill country blues with funk and soul.

George Mitchell first recorded him in 1967, and Fat Possum signed him in 1991, yet wider recognition waited until 1995, when touring with Jon Spencer's group won over punk and garage audiences. A Ass Pocket of Whiskey was cut alongside them.

Producer Tom Rothrock then reworked his tracks for techno and hip-hop listeners on Come On In, an experiment Burnside admitted growing to like. After heart problems he gave up drinking and said he could no longer play; he died in 2005, aged 78.