blues musicians, he did not always adhere to strict 12- or 16-bar blues patterns, often adding extra beats to a measure as he saw fit. His rhythms are often based on the fife and drum blues of north Mississippi. As was the case with his role model John Lee Hooker, Burnside's earliest recordings sound quite similar to one another, even repetitive, in vocal and instrumental styling. Many of these songs eschew traditional chord changes in favor of a single chord or a simple bassline pattern that repeats throughout. Burnside played the guitar fingerstyle—without a pick—and often in open-G tuning. His vocal style is characterized by a tendency to "break" briefly into falsetto, usually at the end of long notes. Like his contemporary T-Model Ford, Burnside favored a stripped-down approach to the blues, marked by a quality of rawness. He and his later managers and reviewers maintained his persona as a hard-working man leading a life of struggle, a heavy drinker, latent criminal singing songs of swagger and rebellion. Burnside knew many toasts—African American narrative folk poems such as "Signifying monkey" and "Tojo Told Hitler"—and fondly recited them between songs at his concerts and on recordings. He narrated long jokes in concerts and social events, and many sources noted his quick wit and charisma. Discography Studio albums Sound Machine Groove (1981) Plays and Sings the Mississippi Delta Blues (1981) Mississippi Hill Country Blues (1987) Skinny Woman (1989) Bad Luck City (1992) Too Bad Jim (1994) A Ass Pocket of Whiskey (1996) Mr. Wizard (1997) Acoustic Stories (1997) Come On In (1998) Wish I Was in Heaven Sitting Down (2000) A Bothered Mind (2004) Live albums Mississippi Blues (1984) Burnside on Burnside (2001) Compilation albums Going Down South (1999) My Black Name a-Ringin''' (1999) Well, Well, Well (2001) Raw Electric (2002) No Monkeys on this Train (2003) First Recordings (2003) Rollin' and Tumblin': the King of Hill Country Blues (2010) Long Distance Call (2019) FilmsHonky Tonk (1974), by Tav FalcoThe Land Where the Blues Began (1979) by Alan Lomax, John Melville Bishop, and Worth Long in association with the Mississippi Authority for Educational Television American Patchwork: Songs and Stories of America, part 3: "The Land Where the Blues Began" (1990), North Carolina Public TV, a lightly re-edited version of "The Land Where the Blues Began" (1979) The Land Where the Blues Began (2010), restored original version, DVD containing two additional performances by