Junior Kimbrough’s music was never suited to a recording studio, which is why the good people at Fat Possum preferred to record Kimbrough in his element — namely, at Junior’s Juke Joint, the self-operated venue he ran on the outskirts of Holly Springs, Mississippi. Unlike All Night Long and Sad Days, Lonely Nights, this album wasn’t recorded in one sitting. Instead, Most Things Haven’t Worked Out is a compilation of various Kimbrough live performances that Bruce Watson recorded over the course of the '90s. The album boasts some of Kimbrough’s biggest hits, if an unknown cult bluesman can have hits. The title track is a swampy, fat-bellied groove, while “Everywhere I Go” is a hypnotic drone, later covered to great effect by the Black Keys. The performances here highlight Kimbrough’s sense of funk. “I’m In Love” and “Burn In Hell” are full of heft and sex, but in a strange way they are related to James Brown. At times Kimbrough’s band sounds like it might be playing “Out of Sight,” but in the slowest, dirtiest possible fashion. The collection is bookended by two solo performances, both of which epitomize Kimbrough’s backwoods magic.