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In 1986, Junior travelled to Memphis to record for Goldwax, who then decided not to release the
tracks as they were “too country”. These recordings eventually saw the light of day in 2009 on Big
Legal Mess Records.

Junior Kimbrough was a popular Juke Joint owner, with his debut album “All Night Long” recorded

in 1992 in his Junior’s Joint, sometimes referred to as Junior's Place, previously a church, in
Chulahoma [Chulahoma is the Choctaw word for red fox]. This was the album, on Fat Possum, that
brought him to wider attention and a 4 star review in “Rolling Stone”. His bass guitarist was R.L.
Burnside’s son, Garry. His drummer was Junior’s son, Kent ‘Kenny’ Kimbrough.

His last two albums “Sad Days, Lonely Nights” and “Most Things Haven’t Worked Out” were also
recorded in his Junior’s Joint, which became a place of pilgrimage whose visitors included Keith
Richard, Iggy Pop and U2. After his death, his juke joint Junior's Joint continued successfully under
the management of his sons, Kinney and David Malone Kimbrough, until it was destroyed by fire in
2000.

Junior featured in the film “Deep Blues – A Musical Pilgrimage to The Crossroads” [1992] filmed in

one of his Juke Joints, Chewalla Rib Shack, east of Holly Springs.

Junior Kimbrough died of a stroke followed by a heart attack in 1998 and is buried in the grounds of
The Kimbrough Chapel Missionary Baptist Church, near Holly Springs. Purported to have 36
children, he leaves more than simply the legacy of being one of the leading figures in Mississippi

Hill Country Blues.

Junior Kimbrough: ‘All Night Long’

Jim Simpson

A Hill Country Get Together

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