Cedric Burnside

Mississippi-born singer, guitarist and drummer Cedric Burnside brings Hill Country blues into the present with a lean, percussive pulse learned at home. Grandson of R.L. Burnside, he carries that circular, riff-driven groove with a drummer’s sense of space and a voice that keeps the stories close to the ground. In 2024, he recorded Hill Country Love in an old Tippah County law office refitted like a wooden juke joint, produced by Luther Dickinson; cut in two days, the record sticks to raw patterns while brushing against rock, R&B and hip-hop textures. Earlier releases include Descendants of Hill Country, Benton County Relic, and I Be Trying, which earned him a Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Album.

On February 7, 2026 at The Starlite Room in Edmonton, he leans into the trance of repeating motifs, tight hand-and-foot rhythms and guitar lines that loop and build without ornament. It’s a sound anchored in place and tradition, played with minimal gear and a close, lived-in feel, where the old cadence opens into something current and unforced.