“Burnside pushes and expands blues boundaries just enough to make this often ominous, swampy, riff-based backwoods attack more palatable to a larger audience.” – American Songwriter

Few artists exemplify the timelessness of the blues like North Mississippi’s Grammy-winning guitarist/drummer/singer-songwriter Cedric Burnside. Burnside’s two Grammy-nominated albums —the 2015 Descendants of Hill Country and 2018’s Benton County Relic — were both capstone statements for a lifetime of musical labour channeling the blues spirit on drums, guitar, and vocals in the North Mississippi Hill Country tradition.

Burnside was born in the blues as much as he was in funk, rock, soul, and hip-hop. He studied over a decade playing with his grandfather RL Burnside, the blues luminary who collaborated with contemporaries from David “Junior” Kimbrough to Jessie Mae Hemphill and Otha Turner, and helped cultivate the feeling of Black North Mississippi life. By age 13, Cedric Burnside was on the road with his grandfather, playing drums, and developing the next generation of the Hill Country calling.

His latest contribution to the blues is I Be Trying, the 13-track 2022 Grammy winner for “Best Traditional Blues Album” that Burnside delivers over blistering guitar and deep pocket drums. Produced by second-generation Memphis soul trailblazer Boo Mitchell (“Uptown Funk”), I Be Trying takes what Burnside learned from his grandfather and reinterprets it into a modern, bold Black American sound that expands the sonic landscape while respecting and honouring its roots. Experience Cedric Burnside’s electrifying Victoria debut and legacy of Hill Country Blues as he rocks Wicket Hall in a duo format this May!