Lightnin' Malcolm
At age 30, singer, guitarists, songwriter, and wild live performer Steve “Lightnin” Malcolm has over 16 years stage experience. Born in rural Missouri, Malcolm enjoyed the freedom of country life, quickly learning to entertain himself and others around him. Growing up in a little village called Burgess MO. in a country house next to the KCS Railroad that ran from Kansas City to New Orleans, the train has always been a theme in Malcolm’s music, as well as the inspiration for the steady, insistent bass rhythms of rural dance music.
“I remember I was 7 or 8, and the grown folks was parked out on the road listening to music and carryin’ on. They put on a tape called “Muddy Waters Greatest Hits,” and when I heard that voice shootin’ out of that speaker, I was shocked. I fell in love with it, and I promised myself then and there that if I grew up to be a man, I was gonna try to do that!”
He started singing and playing drums on his mothers pots and pans and about age 10 he got his hands on his first guitar. About two years later he was sneaking into clubs, sitting in with bands, and was getting paying jobs by 16.
“See, it was them ole jukejoints and honkytonks in them days, and there wasn’t too much law out on them country places, and if you could see over the bar, you could get what you wanted. I was lucky, the times done changed, most young players nowadays, he wont be able to get away with that.”
Around the same time he began visiting the North Mississippi region and immediately identified with the blues scene and the legends still living there. Malcolm fell under the spell of the North Mississippi hill country blues being performed by legends Junior Kimbrough, R.L. Burnside, and Otha Turner at Kimbrough’s world famous juke joint outside Holly Springs, Miss. Over the years Malcolm has made friends and worked with blues greats such as Cedell Davis, Jessie Mae Hemphill, Robert Belfour, Otha Turner, T Model Ford, as well as Kimbrough and Burnside and their family bands to name a few. Malcolm, along with other younger cohorts from the area such as the North Mississippi Allstars, Jimbo Mathus, Kenny Brown, Kenny and David Kimbrough Jr, and Cedric and Gary Burnside have continued to spread the North Mississippi hill country sound to the rest of the world.
The sound traces back to the local ante-bellum fife and drum cadences, linked directly to the West African Dance customs that managed to survive in the backwoods of Panola, Tate, Desoto, and Marshall counties in Mississippi after slavery. When transformed onto electric guitars and drums, this music becomes a churning, droning, hypnotic exersize of sex and mayhem, with magical statements shouted over repeated riffs. The result is riveting dance music, first made famous by Mississippi Fred Mcdowell, and in later years by Junior Kimbrough, Jessie Mae Hemphill, T Model Ford, and especially R.L. Burnside.
Malcolm has been solidly building his reputation as one of the 2nd generations leading purveyors of the hill country blues through magnetic live performances at clubs, concerts, college campuses, and festivals across the country. He performs with the great drummers from the area or solo as a one man band, playing slashing guitar and rocking drum patterns with his feet simultaneously.
In 2001 Malcolm went out to the West Coast on tour and fell in love with California’s beautiful Bay Area. He ended up staying out there almost 3 years, playing up and down the coast.
“Out in California I had a good time. I enjoyed being by the ocean, and being around so many different races of people. I was influenced by some different sounds out there, you know, playing with more polished R&B bands in Oakland, or doing shows with punk rock bands in the rock clubs in San Francisco. I’d just play hill country blues and they loved it, its so universal, if its from your heart. As far as I’m concerned, the more different the audience, the better I like it.”
In the summer of 2004, Malcolm moved back to Mississippi. The first thing he did was made a new record with Kenny Kimbrough and Gary Burnside as his backing band. The album, “Juke Joint Dance Party” which features band tracks as well as his one man band sound, was recorded in Clarksdale, at Jimbo Mathus’ studio, and came out on Knockdown South Records.
“Luther Dikinson introduced me and Jimbo to each other. We actually met at Otha Turners picnic, and we hit it off pretty good. We was both busy and didn’t see each other for a few years, but when I got back he was living in Clarksdale, so I’d run into him more often. We pretty much have the same attitude towards music, meaning we don’t believe in categories, a good song is a good song.”
Upon returning, Malcolm lived for a while out at R.L. Burnsides home, rehearsing with Cedric and Gary out on the porch everyday, playing in the juke joints in Holly Springs and Oxford and crashing on the couch in the living room. This sound can be heard on the new record Cedric and Gary recorded with Malcolm on bass guitar.
Just before New Years 2005, Mathus approached Malcolm about helping him with a big New Years Eve show that was being broadcast live worldwide on NPR radio. Even with no rehearsal, Malcolm’s guitar playing with Jimbo’s trio was so in sync, Jimbo asked him to join the Knockdown South band full time.
In May, Malcolm went on a successful European tour, headlining festivals as a one-man band and on drums with hill country blues legend Robert Belfour. He also has a brand new album “Songs Heard Around the World,” containing his most diverse range of styles yet, finished.
When not on the road, Malcolm lives in Clarksdale, working at the studio, or hanging out jamming at the world famous Reds Lounge, on of the last true Mississippi Juke Joints, located in downtown Clarksdale.