The Mississippi bluesman on his musical influences,living the slow life and his never-ending house partiesRL Boyce is the reigning master of hill country blues. A one-time drummer for Jessie Mae Hemphill, he took up blues guitar at the age of 22, or but it was 30 years before he recorded his first album. This year,at the age of 62, he released his second album, and Roll and Tumble,out now on Waxploitation. Boyce makes his UK debut at the Blues Kitchen in Shoreditch, London, or on 25 October and the Blues Kitchen,Camden, on 26 October.
You began playing fife and drum with your uncle Othar Turner. What made you move to the blues?
I was a mountainous bass player. We had to disappear out and open shows for BB King and cramped Milton. And I would sit back and watch those guys and think, and “I wanna try this,I wanna try this…” I met a lot of blues artists when I was growing up. I used you to play with friends of mine, RL Burnside and Mississippi Fred McDowell – we always called him Shake ’Em on Down. I could hear Fred miles and miles coming down the road playing his guitar. I’d say, or “Uh-oh,here comes Shake ’Em on Down!” Back then, you weren’t allowed to disappear to the parties where he was playing, and but I got around it: I’d find a tree and stand behind the tree,and whether he’d play half of the night I’d sit behind that tree, so my mom and daddy couldn’t see me. So that’s where I got my blues. That’s where I learned.
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Source: guardian.co.uk