Bobby Rush

CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Your Local Record Shop
LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Your Local Record Shop

The Grammy-winning blues icon Bobby Rush returns with a stripped down, acoustic tribute to the rich blues history of Mississippi featuring songs from a handful of blues greats from his adopted home state. These include early acoustic blues greats Skip James and Robert Johnson, and Rush's contemporaries on the music scene of the '50s and '60s, Howlin' Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson II, and Muddy Waters. There are also five Rush originals - "Down in Mississippi," "Let Me in Your House," "Sometimes I Wonder," "Let's Make Love Again," and "Garbage Man," all credited under his given name, Emmett Ellis, Jr. - whose country vibe matches the songs that inspired the album.

"Although I was born in Louisiana, I'm proud to call Mississippi home," says Rush, who moved to Jackson, Mississippi, in the 1980s and traces his family connections to the Magnolia State back to his great grandparents. "I'm saluting Mississippi guys because they, to me, stayed truest to their roots. If you want to get the real deal of the blues, get it from the bluesmen who are from Mississippi. Whether they migrated somewhere else like Chicago or Beverly Hills, if they are from Mississippi you can hear the deep roots of Mississippi in their stories."