David Kimbrough Jr. - Say You Don't Love Me: The Last Recordings Of David Kimbrough Jr. (2020)

> The album

Done got gone

I confess I'm quite troubled by this album, recorded in the fall of 2017 at David Kimbrough Jr.'s house in Holly Springs, in the North Mississippi Hills. Why? Precisely because I don't hear much Hill Country blues in this album, not even in the covers of his father Junior Kimbrough, one of the legendary figure of the style.  
David Kimbrough Jr., sometimes also named David Kimbrough III, has been presented many times as the real successor of his father's musical tradition, the "Cotton Patch Soul Blues" style, but his music has little in common with his father's style.

This posthumous album sounds like a raw demo tape, apparently without much post-production. Kimbrough sings and plays a simple acoustic-sounding Fender Stratocaster guitar on his front porch like he would do for a TV documentary report, or at a friends or family members gathering.
It's mainly a tribute from a son to his father through covers of Junior Kimbrough's "Done Got Old", "I'm Leaving You Baby", "Meet Me In The City", the "Lonesome Road/Lord Have Mercy On Me" medley and a previously unpublished song, "Say You Don't Love Me". David Kimbrough plays only two of his own compositions: "Half Past A Monkey's Azz" and "Poke That Pig".

Unfortunately, despite few interesting guitar moments, the global result is not really enthralling, lacking that special spark that makes the music capture your mind and body. Where is the hypnotic heavy percussive style of the Mississippi Hills? Take a song like "Done Got Old". Besides Junior Kimbrough's original version, Buddy Guy made a more chilling cover on his 2001 album "Sweet Tea". Like a stream of water flowing over me without ever getting me wet, this album left me rather unconcerned.

David Kimbrough died in July 2019 from cancer. Was this 2017 field recording session initially planned to be released as an album? Was it published posthumously as a form of testament? Or was its release motivated by plain commercial opportunism? In any case, this last known recording should have better remained in the Kimbrough family safe and stay there as a private souvenir of the late David Kimbrough...

< Junior Kimbrough
 

About the "Cotton Patch Soul Blues"

> Robert Kimbrough explains what is the Kimbrough style: https://youtu.be/8VoP-vzGqEU

Audio live shows

> North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic

 live raw audio recordings

 (legally free download under Common Public License):
- In 2011: https://archive.org/details/davidkimbrough2011-06-25

- In 2015 and much better: https://archive.org/details/davidkimbrough2015-06-26

Around the album

> Video of the recording on the front porch on a rainy day, 2017, Holly Springs: https://youtu.be/tVr9DbBdPfQ ("Done Got Old")

> Album video trailer: https://youtu.be/80-izh3YSao

DK's live videos

> A few weeks before his death, at the Kimbrough ""Cotton Patch Soul Blues" Festival, The Hut, Holly Springs, Mississippi, May 19, 2019:

- "All Night Long": https://youtu.be/WJKkeKVNKUc

- "Baby, Come On With Me": https://youtu.be/brwz__FcfUY

> David Kimbrough at the Cotton Patch Blues Fest (65mn - there are a number of musicians in and out through the set, Kinny and Robert Kimbrough join in for the second half): https://youtu.be/4hMPs17gVjc

> On tour with David Gray:

- at the Spa City Blues Challenge, Hot Springs Arkansas, in 2012: https://youtu.be/jYl7F9POkzM

- at the Buffalo River Blues Challenge in 2012: https://youtu.be/iIW6_hnnVCY

> At the Mountain View Dulcimer Festival in 2012: https://youtu.be/GcY_lc1q6oA

> Obsessive rhythm at the Bikes Blues and BBQ 2011 Fest. in Fayetteville, Arkansas: https://youtu.be/9HAHTVZ34s8

 

> With the North Mississippi Allstars in Fayetteville, 2012: https://youtu.be/5muzG82M3LM

> With Duwayne Burnside at the Burnside Blues Cafe in 2011: https://youtu.be/1RPRlI5b2Hc

> With Kinney Kimbrough and Chris Chew at the New Daisy, Memphis, in 2010: https://youtu.be/-I3AMuNGbTU

> Fun on a picnic with R.L. Boyce (amateur shooting): https://youtu.be/_NxVtRf4qZA

▼David Kimbrough Jr had rebuilt

the Juke Joint of his father

that burned down in 2000.

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