ROBERT BELFOUR
Robert Belfour left the hills of North Mississippi 40 years ago, but his music never did. Like most of the other accomplished performers from the area, Belfour lived and breathed the unique musical heritage of his home region. His first memory is of his father playing a resonator guitar; he ate at Othar Turner’s famous goat roast picnics, where fife & drum’s resonated into the night; he listened to gospel songs in church, sung by Syd Hemphill; and he often hung out with his neighbor and future labelmate, Junior Kimbrough. Belfour was 13 when his father died, and most of his energy energy went to helping provide for his family, but he still managed to break away to learn his father’s guitar. It was only natural that he would fall into the churning, aggressive, one-chord onslaught that is Mississippi hill country blues–a style radically different from Delta blues. In 1959 he married, moved to Memphis, and worked construction for the next 35 years, playing when he could. In the 1990s, he was “discovered” by Fat Possum Records, the most important blues label of the decade, and home to R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, T-Model Ford and many others (including a little blues riff-based rock band called The Black Keys). He recorded two discs, to positive critical reviews, which made his career. Now in his seventies, Belfour’s guitar playing is characterized by a deeply percussive attack and alternate tunings, his voice is clear and powerful, and his sound is pure pure hill country blues.

Red Hot Texas Blues and Mimbres Brew!