Album Review: Come On In by R.L. Burnside

An album that combines blues and dance music? Seem too absurd even to try? Well, tell that to Mississippi blues singer R.L. Burnside, whose new album is a test of just how far the concept of musical fusion can go. According to Burnside, "Adam and Eve were dancing to the blues. Blues is nothing but dance music." Still, there is a risk in making any sort of fusion album. Fusion music often ends up combining the worst elements of two styles rather than the best. But Burnside is too good of a musician to let that happen. As a blues man, he's the real thing: a former sharecropper who sounds like he belongs more on a Smithsonian Folkways recording than a concert stage. Some of the most magical moments on this latest album come when Burnside shuts off the incessant drum beat behind him and just, as they say, does his thing. Unfortunately, the dance element of Come On In hardly matches Burnside's bluesy croonings. Except on a few tracks like "Been Mistreated" and "Let My Baby Ride," where Burnside uses a real drum set rather than an electronic beat, the dance aspect sounds forced and awkward. Maybe blues really is nothing but dance music, but the rhythms of the Mississippi delta are not those of modern dance clubs.