David Kimbrough, b. July 28, 1930 in Hudsonville, MS, d. January 17, 1998 in Holly Springs, MS, juke joint blues musician, active 1950s - 1990s. His best-known works are "Keep Your Hands off Her" and "All Night Long". Kimbrough described his music as "cottonpatch blues" but commentators preferred to see it as the resurgence of the "juke joint" style, once synonymous with Frank Frost, of which Kimbrough and R.L. Burnside are the finest recent exponents. His synthesis of the North Mississippi hill country musical tradition relied upon minimal instrumentation, mesmeric repetition and the seemingly random but instinctive orchestration of basic blues disciplines. Picking up his brother's guitar at the age of eight, Kimbrough absorbed the music of neighbours Mississippi Fred McDowell and Eli Green, became part of their circle and played for parties and jukes until his untimely death in 1998. Cited by rockabilly artist Charlie Feathers and others as a major influence and thus, by inference, vital to the creation of the "Sun sound", Kimbrough organized his own parties in and around Holly Springs from the mid-60s, backed by the Soul Blues Boys, a band that consisted of members of his and Burnside's families. He was filmed at the Chewalla Rib Shack for Robert Palmer's film documentary Deep Blues and "Jr. Blues" was featured on the soundtrack album. Both subsequent albums predominantly featured his own songs, which relied heavily upon the recognizable "floating" verses associated with the area.
Kimbrough died of a heart attack following a stroke in 1998 in Holly Springs, at the age of 67. According to Fat Possum Records, he was survived by 36 children. He is buried outside his family's church, the Kimbrough Chapel Missionary Baptist Church, near Holly Springs. The rockabilly musician Charlie Feathers, a friend of Kimbrough's, called him "the beginning and end of all music"; this tribute is written on Kimbrough's tombstone.
Junior Kimbrough Biography by Bill Dahl
Cited as a prime early influence by rockabilly pioneer Charlie Feathers, Mississippi Delta bluesman Junior Kimbrough's modal, hypnotic blues vision remained a regional sensation for most of his career. He finally transcended the confines of his region in the early '90s, when he appeared in the 1991 movie Deep Blues and on its Anxious/Atlantic soundtrack, leading to his own debut for Fat Possum Records, All Night Long.
Junior Kimbrough was born and raised in Hudsonville, Mississippi, where he learned how to play guitar by listening to records by Delta bluesmen. In 1968, he cut his first single, "Tramp," for the local Philwood label. For the next two decades, Kimbrough didn't have the opportunity to record frequently -- he recorded a single, "Keep Your Hands Off Her," for High Water and his "All Night Long" was available on the various artists compilation National Downhome Festival, Vol. 2 released on Southland Records.
During the '70s and '80s, Kimbrough played juke joints throughout Mississippi, which is where music journalist Robert Palmer discovered him in the late '80s. Palmer featured Kimbrough in his documentary film Deep Blues. The exposure in the movie led to a national record contract for Kimbrough -- he signed with Fat Possum and released his first full-length album, All Night Long, in 1992. The record was critically acclaimed by both blues and mainstream publications, as was Deep Blues and its accompanying soundtrack. All of the media attention led to performances outside of the Delta, including a few shows in England. After the flurry of activity in 1992, Junior Kimbrough returned to playing juke joints in the Delta, recording occasionally -- he released his second album, Sad Days, Lonely Nights, in 1993. Most Things Haven't Worked Out followed in 1997, and a year later Kimbrough returned with God Knows I Tried. He died of a heart attack on January 17, 1998.