Haven't we got to the point yet where his albums are issued at birth to each newborn child? If not this world is in a damn sad state.
Y'all know Mr. Brown learned to play mostly at the feet of Mr. Joe Callicott, and as a young man became R.L. Burnside's "adopted white son," playing guitar for Mr. Burnside (and on occasion with others like Junior Kimbrough) for twenty-six years. For the last few years he's been playing and hosting the North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic, which presents most everybody you could want to see/hear that rocks that Hill Country sound. Mr. Brown released an album on the Plum Tone label in 1998 (back in the olden days when I ordered it by phone it was Kenny on the line) called Goin' Back To Missisippi (shamefully out-of-print! Somebody needs to fix that.), one on Fat Possum in 2003 called Stingray, one i'd never heard of called Fast, Cheap, and Dirty with Danish guitarist Troels Jensen in ought-six, Meet Ya At The Bottom via CDBaby in 2008, and now a new double-disc set on Devil Down Records called Can't Stay Long.
Disc One is titled Porch Songs and that's just what it is. Kenny Brown playing and singing solo on Kenny Brown's porch. Recorded over a weekend. That's it. All you need.
Disc two is titled Money Maker. It was recorded live at the 2010 North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic. If you've been achin' for some classic Mississippi Hill Country boogie you can quit it now. Dr. Brown and his band deliver the rural medicine. The thing that I dig most about this live set is that you finally get to hear just what a badass bar band vibe Kenny Brown can roll out (dream show would be Kenny and The Bottle Rockets), yet get artistically deep up in the boogie.
Can't Stay Long is the first album to really deliver Mr. Brown's live thing intact. It stands as both Kenny Brown/ North Mississippi Hill country Blues compendium and companion. Maybe Kenny can't stay long but this album will.
