Members of U2 and the Rolling Stones attended his legendary house parties.

                                Addicted To Noise Staff Writer Chris Nelson reports:
                                Northern Mississippi bluesman Junior Kimbrough, who
                                was as well-known in blues circles for his legendary house
                                parties as for his raw, earthy music, died from a heart
                                attack in Holly Springs, Miss. on Saturday. He was 67.

                                Although Mr. Kimbrough had first recorded his mix of
                                country blues and soul music as early as 1966, he only
                                came to wider public attention in the 1990s, when the
                                Fat Possum label began releasing his work, along with
                                that of contemporaries such as R.L. Burnside.

                                A hospital stay after a recent car accident had woken
                                Mr. Kimbrough up to lingering health problems
                                including diabetes and gall stones, said Amos Harvey,
                                a spokesman for Fat Possum. "When I saw him a
                                couple times before Christmas, he said he was getting
                                stronger and wanted to play again," Harvey said. "He
                                had a renewed vigor to go ahead and start playing
                                again."

                                Mr. Kimbrough's guitar playing was marked by the
                                repetitive rhythms often associated with musicians
                                from northern Mississippi. His vocal style was often
                                compared to that of regional forebears such as Bukka
                                White and Fred McDowell.

                                In addition to garnering acclaim with the Fat Possum
                                albums All Night Long, Sad Days, Lonely Nights and
                                Most Things Haven't Worked Out, Mr. Kimbrough
                                was known for hosting rollicking house parties in his
                                Holly Springs living room.

                                "Usually it would be 15 or 20 people, coming and
                                going, drinking, talking, dancing, passing out, the
                                occasional fight," Dr. David Evans told Addicted To
                                Noise last year. Evans, a Memphis State University
                                ethnomusicologist who recorded Mr. Kimbrough and
                                attended the regular parties thrown by him and
                                Burnside, worked with Mr. Kimbrough in 1982 and '88
                                on recordings that were released last year under the
                                title Do The Rump! (Hightone).

                                In 1991, Mr. Kimbrough was captured on film in the
                                documentary Deep Blues, which was produced by the
                                late music critic Robert Palmer. On several occasions,
                                Palmer brought famed rock stars, from the Rolling
                                Stones to U2, over to Mr. Kimbrough's parties, where
                                they would sit in with the band to varying degrees of
                                success.

                                "He'll still live on with us," Harvey said. "You won't get
                                to see him much, but his music's there."

                                Mr. Kimbrough is survived by his common law wife
                                Mildred. He claimed to have 36 children, Harvey said.
                                [Tues., Jan. 20, 1998, 9 a.m. PST]

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