**
Cedric’s face lights up when he talks about his grandfather who always told him to, “treat people like I wanted to be treated, and just try to be the best you can be. He always tried to encourage us to be the best we could be, so those words always stuck with me. And it always will.”
Before The Cedric Burnside Project hit the stage Dave’s Dark Horse Tavern, with Cedric on the drums and lead vocals and Trenton playing guitar, Cedric pulled a chair up to an acoustic guitar and picked and sang solo the relaxing, stripped down version of the famous Hill Country blues.
When the band got started, it was easy to see why Cedric held down the title of “Drummer of the Year” in the Blues Music Awards from 2010-2014, but it’s harder to understand how he is able to deliver such powerful lead vocals while keeping the rhythm.
Trenton Ayers’ guitar started out with the blues. He makes masterful use of the slide. As the night progressed, he channeled electric sounds reminiscent of Stevie Ray Vaughn. There is a certain sense of rock and even some of the wildness of metal in his playing, but ultimately, Trenton has a signature sound that, like Cedric’s, comes from a place of free self-expression. That’s what the Hill Country sound is all about, after all—self-expression.
They played old favorites such as “Meet Me in the City” and “Goin’ Down South” and several originals such as “Born with It” and a song dedicated to the Burnside patriarch, “R. L. Burnside.”
Between songs, Mr. R. L. Burnside was alive again as Cedric delivered his grandfather’s blue jokes.
“’Daddy, why do I stutter and my b-b-b-brother and my s-s-s-sister don’t?’
‘I don’t know son, go ask your mother.’
‘Mama, why do I stutter and my b-b-b-brother and my s-s-s-sister don’t?’
‘I don’t know, son, go ask the mailman.’
‘Mr. mailman, can you tell me why I stutter and b-b-b-brother and my s-s-s-sister don’t?’
‘Sh-sh-sh-shut up boy, before you get s-s-s-somebody killed!’”
The Cedric Burnside Project is down-home, Mississippi, juke-house style fun, and if it doesn’t make you want to get up to shake and dance, you’ve got to be made of wood. The award-winning drummer was still behind his drum set after the show when I shook his hand and thanked him for his performance.
“Thank you for dancing!” he replied sincerely.
It seems like everybody in the Burnside family has had a career in music, and Cedric is proud of his heritage. While Buddy Guy took home the Grammy for Best Blues Album, something tells me Cedric still has time to win the Grammy award that his famous grandfather never did. On February 19, he posted the following statement to his fans on social media:
“We are back on the road today, doing what we love…playing the music that comes from the hills of North Mississippi. We would do it at the Grammy’s or on our front porch or anywhere in between. On that note, congratulations to Mr. Buddy Guy on his win, because the truth is, legends like him paved the way for us youngsters. Maybe we will be up for that golden trophy again. Maybe not. But we are still the most blessed men in the world because we get to play our songs to your smiling faces every night.”
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