You Better Run: The Essential Junior Kimbrough CD

A career spanning collection of tracks from one of the most influential & original blues musicians in the past fifty years, Junior Kimbrough, hailed by such folks as Bono & Iggy Pop as a primal force in American music, Junior never reached the mass audience that he deserved while alive, but his music endures & continues to be discovered by music fans from all walks of life. 12 awesome tracks.

Personnel: Junior Kibrough, Charlie Feathers (vocals, guitar); Kenny Brown (guitar); Dale Beavers, Gary Burnside (bass); Kenny Malone (drums).
Producers include: Robert Palmer, Junior Kimbrough, Matthew Johnson, Bruce Watson, John Herman.
Recorded between 1969 & 1996. Includes liner notes by Anthony DeCurtis.
Personnel: Junior Kimbrough (vocals, guitar); Charlie Feathers (vocals, guitar); Kenny Brown (guitar); Kenny Malone (drums).
Liner Note Author: Anthony DeCurtis.
Recording information: Home (1969-1996); Junioir's Juke Joint, Chulahoma, MS (1969-1996); Junior Kimbrough's Place, Holly Springs, MS (1969-1996); Lunati Farms, Holly Springs, MS (1969-1996); Sunflower Blues Festival, Clarksdale, MS (1969-1996).
Photographer: David Barry .
Gathering the best of his all-too-brief recording career, You Better Run: The Essential Junior Kimbrough includes most of his best-known songs, including "Done Got Old," "Meet Me in the City," "You Better Run," and "All Night Long." The collection does a good job of representing each of Kimbrough's albums, ranging from the rough-and-ready sound of All Night Long; Sad Days, Lonely Nights' dark, swampy feel (exemplified here by the title track and "Old Black Mattie"); the dense sonics of Most Things Haven't Worked Out's title track; and the gritty, uncompromising edge to God Knows I Tried's "Tramp." For anyone unsure where to dive into Kimbrough's catalog, You Better Run offers the ideal starting point. ~ Heather Phares

Rolling Stone (9/19/02, p.106) - 4 stars out of 5 - "This, boys and girls, is why not everyone can play the blues....The music is dark and vibrant, the sex nasty, the nights late and messy, and women not to be trusted."
Entertainment Weekly (10/25/02, p.77) - "...A dozen examples of Kimbrough's iconoclastic mix of raw menace and unexpected beauty..." - Rating: A
Living Blues (11/02, pp.76-7) - "...The album paints a beautiful aural picture of Kimbrough..."