The final three R.L. Burnside studio albums are either genius works of crossover or travesties of blues abandonment, depending on how you roll. Around the beginning of the 1990's the rich musical scene of the Mississippi hill country was uncovered. Among the various figures of that scene, Burnside seemed most willing to explore around outside the immediate area, team up early on with the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and then challenging the whole notion of "blues" with the 1998 remix album Come On In. Aside from the live Burnside on Burnside and a myriad of retrospective releases, he never went fully back to his roots, though the next two remix albums, Wish I Were In Heaven Sitting Down and this one, would sport the occasional rootsy number. A Bothered Mind buries two such tracks into its thirteen songs, one of which is actually a much earlier recording from 1968. However the real tone of the album is in remixed standards like "Rollin' and Tumblin'" and collaborations with the likes of Kid Rock. Needless to say it's a far cry from Mississippi here, as if the bizarre opening/closing "Detroit Boogie" makes obvious. I know Chicago and Detroit aren't the same thing, but he was certainly clear about not liking travelling north on the previous album.
Sadly, Burnside passed away in 2005, cut his late-in-life renaissance somewhat short. His odd backing band (grandson Cedric Burnside on drums and "adopted white son" Kenny Brown on slide guitar) have continued, however, with both appearing in the film Black Snake Moan and Cedric in particular having released a clutch of solo albums.
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