Jimmy Burns & The Soul Message Band

Full Circle

Delmark Records

Jimmy Burns is an American soul-blues and electric blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter whose career spans more than six decades. The eighty-one-year-old was born in Dublin, Mississippi, and raised on the Hilliard Cotton Plantation, where he learned to play both one-string and twelve-string guitar. The youngest of eleven children, Burns sang in the church choir and was influenced by the street blues he heard growing up, particularly the music of Lightnin’ Hopkins. His father, a sharecropper, performed as a singer in traveling medicine shows.

At the age of twelve, Burns moved with his family to Chicago, and by sixteen he had joined the doo-wop group The Medallionaires. During the 1960s, he recorded several solo singles for the USA, Minit, Tip Top, and Erica labels. Through the decade and into the 1970s, he toured the Midwest with his band The Fantastic Epics, and later as Jimmy Burns and the Gas Company. His 1972 single “I Really Love You” was later ranked among the Top 500 singles of Northern Soul and remains a prized collector’s item. After the 1970s, Burns stepped away from music to raise his family and run a barbecue stand.

In the early 1990s, Burns returned to performing and began a long residency at Chicago’s Smoke Daddy Club, where he was rediscovered by Delmark Records founder Bob Koester, who offered to record him after hearing just one set. The result was Burns’ 1996 debut album Leaving Here Walking, which went on to be named “Best Blues Record of the Year” by the National Association of Independent Record Distributors and earned two W.C. Handy Award (now BMA) nominations. The album launched his international touring career.

For Full Circle, Burns teams up with the Soul Message Band, featuring Burns on lead vocals and guitar (one track); Lee Rothenberg, guitar; Chris Foreman, Hammond B-3 organ; Geof Bradfield, tenor sax; Greg Jung, alto sax; Greg Rockingham, drums; and Typhanie Monique, vocals.

The album opens with “Express Yourself,” written by Charles W. Wright and originally a 1970 Billboard Top 20 hit. Foreman and Rockingham, both veterans of Delmark’s award-winning Deep Blue Organ Trio, bring deep groove and chemistry to the track. Burns notes that Wright hailed from the same greater Clarksdale, Mississippi area as he did, making the song especially meaningful. “Everybody on the floor now, express yourself.”

“World of Trouble,” written by Big Joe Turner in 1957, follows with a swinging jazz-blues vibe. Burns sings, “You’re in a world of trouble, don’t know what to do. Little girl gone, woman done quit you man for another man. You’re in a world of trouble, whole world got its back on you. I got news for you, big boy, you got a bad case of the lowdown blues.”

Next is a remastered version of Burns’ Northern Soul classic “I Really Love You,” written by Robert Newsome and first released on Erica Records in 1970. Burns’ emotional delivery still captivates: “I’m so weak and downhearted, everything’s been wrong ever since we parted. You gave me your love, I misused it… listen baby, I really love you.”

“Ain’t That Funk For You,” an instrumental written by trombonist Al Grey (a longtime member of the Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra), radiates groove and joy. The interplay between Foreman’s organ and Rockingham’s tight drumming keeps the funk alive.

On “Too Much Lovin’,” written in 1953 by guitarist Lowman ‘Pete’ Pauling of The Five Royales, Burns revisits a tune he first recorded on his 1999 Delmark album Night Time Again. With a fiery sax solo and solid rhythm section, the track pays homage to both Ray Charles and Pauling’s deep songwriting legacy.

“Give Her Love To Me,” written by Charles Colbert, also known as “Give Her To Me,” was originally recorded by Burns in 1965 for Tip Top Records. Its playful refrain, “A good girl is hard to find, if you don’t want her, you can give her to me,” captures the early Chicago soul sound. The session also revisits “It Used to Be,” another Burns original from the Tip Top era.

The timeless “Since I Fell For You,” written by Buddy Johnson in 1945 and first sung by his sister Ella Johnson, remains a standout jazz and pop standard. Burns gives it his own soulful treatment, infusing the song with lived emotion and a lifetime of experience.

“Rock Me Mama,” originally written and recorded by Melvin ‘Lil’ Son’ Jackson in 1950, has been covered by countless blues legends including Big Joe Turner, Muddy Waters, and B.B. King. Burns’ version honors that lineage with grit and reverence.

“Where Does That Leave Me,” written by Barry George Despenza and Gregory C. Washington, brings a 1970s soul-jazz sensibility with an arrangement reminiscent of Donny Hathaway’s elegant style.

The concept behind Full Circle was to revisit the historical recordings of Jimmy Burns and bring them into a modern context. The original versions were first released as 45 rpm vinyl singles—once the lifeblood of jukeboxes and corner bars throughout the Midwest. This collection draws a line from those early days to the present, showing the evolution of an artist who’s lived the full arc of the blues.

With its mix of soul, funk, jazz, and traditional blues, Full Circle serves as both a career retrospective and a celebration of the living Chicago blues tradition. It’s a testament to Jimmy Burns’ artistry, resilience, and lifelong connection to the roots of American music. For blues aficionados, this one is a treasure.

Richard Ludmerer
Contributing Editor / Making A Scene

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