most things haven't worked out

Crawling around in the dirt. Crawling around in the dirt between the rows of blooming, blinding white cotton in the field to the side of Junior's old country juke, and this woman, Lord she must have been sixty, she was out there crawling around in the dirt with me, I'm not lyin'! Both of us out there in the sun, drunk on white lightnin' in the middle of the day! And it was Sunday! Amps turned up all the way inside the shack, drums making the floorboards boom, you could hear it fine. Yeah out there in the dirt.
--Robert Palmer "Out There in the Dirt" (from Blues & Chaos)

Palmer was out there in the dirt, trying to find what people go looking for when they're drunk on shine - sex, laughter, the throb of life lived a little on the edge - even if only for a drunk Sunday in the country. And while those words are from the liner notes to Junior Kimbrough's All Night Long, they speak the truth for Most Things Haven't Worked Out, Kimbrough's album released a year after he passed away at age 67. From the sound of "I'm in Love" it doesn't seem like the old dog was ready to give up the ghost. Kimbrough comes on strong, talking about making love all night and how he can't help himself. The man may be close to the other shore, but he's still got both feet in the muddy waters of life. But words aren't even half the point of a song this elemental and driven. Everything which needs to be said comes from Kimbrough's guitar surging on the heavy bottom current provided by Gary Burnside (R.L.'s son) on bass and Kenny Malone (Junior's son) on drums.

Junior Kimbrough - I'm In Love [buy it at Fat Possum]