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You See Me Laughin' : Last of the Hill Country Bluesmen
In this day and age of media overload, it's astonishing that the wilds of America can still conceal vital, outstanding music that remains unrecorded and largely unheard. But Matthew Johnson, a skinny white boy from Mississippi, found a heap in his own backyard. In the early '90s, turned on to blues by a University of Mississippi class taught by rock critic and historian Robert Palmer, Johnson was inspired to seek out nearby elderly blues guitarists. Though he flunked the class, the young future label mogul went on to meet and record R.L. Burnside (a former cohort of Mississippi Fred McDowell), Junior Kimbrough (a local juke-joint owner, superb guitar player, and father of 28 children), Cedell Davis (a crippled but resolute guitarist), and T-Model Ford (an illiterate former convict who picked up his first guitar at age 58).